


Temporary Truce

by SincereIrony



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chaotic friend groups, England - Freeform, F/M, Gryffindor, Hogwarts, Hufflepuff, Italy, M/M, Magic, Marauders, Marauders era, Original Characters - Freeform, Ravenclaw, Rivalry, Romance, Slytherin, Why Did I Write This?, hungary - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-18 02:48:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 16
Words: 33,139
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28736007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SincereIrony/pseuds/SincereIrony
Summary: Riona, Albus Dumbledore’s granddaughter, is a popular, hotheaded Gryffindor on the Quidditch team, and Eszter, Gellert Grindelwald’s descendant, is respected, powerful Ravenclaw with a tongue sharper than a diamond knife. The two girls are complete opposites, and they’ve been rivals long enough to realize one thing that they have in common; they have undeniable mutual hate for one another, and their rivalry is nearly a carbon copy of their grandfathers’ enmity: hateful, negative, and worsening with every passing year.All of a sudden, in the middle of their fourth year, a group of crazy, boisterous boys known as the Marauders crash into their lives after both girls are forced to help them. As the arrangement progresses, what will happen to the world that Riona Dumbledore and Eszter Grindelwald know? Will the Marauders, of all people, help end their enmity? Or will their rivalry spiral out of control and ruin everything?
Relationships: Undecided
Kudos: 7





	1. The First Part

**September 1, 1971**

_The first time Riona Dumbledore laid eyes on Eszter Grindelwald was in a great, beautiful hall filled with cheering students and wise teachers ready to welcome a new generation of wizards into Hogwarts._

_“Dumbledore, Jack!”_

_Riona Dumbledore, bright eyed and bushy haired at the ripe age of eleven, snapped to attention as the familiar name was called. Her younger twin brother, easily recognizable by his messy red hair, the outbreak of freckles on his face, and shiny green eyes, stepped up to the platform with a wobbly, nervous smile._

_The Sorting Hat was placed on his head with something like a ceremonial flourish from Professor McGonagall. After a few seconds of silence, apart from Jack whispering something and the Sorting Hat letting out a cackle at that, the fateful hat made its decision._

_“GRRYYYFFFIINNNDOOOR!”_

_Riona immediately began to cheer and clap for her little brother as he let out a whoop and ran over to his new house amid the cries of support and excitement flooding the Great Hall._

_The cheers were silenced by Professor McGonagall’s imposing glare that swept across the crowd. She cleared her throat, adjusted her polished spectacles, and began to speak._

_“Dumbledore, Riona!”_

_Riona’s formerly light feet turned to stone as she slowly walked towards the platform where she would be sorted, then focused her gaze towards the other tables._

_At the Hufflepuff table, she recognized the face of her second oldest sibling, Kendra._ _Riona could easily pinpoint her sister’s long, sun kissed auburn curls and gorgeous eyes the color of milk chocolate. Eyes that half of the boys in Kendra’s year had fallen head over heels in love with. Riona bit back a laugh as she remembered Hugh Brighton, the ridiculous upstart who’d showed up at their door after finding their address and sang horrific ballads in Kendra’s honor in an attempt to win her over. He’d been blasted from the front steps in exactly five seconds._

_At the Gryffindor table, watching her intently with a steady, lovely emerald gaze, was Alia, Riona’s older sister. At thirteen, she was the eldest of the Dumbledore children, and her eyes—as bright of a green as Jack’s—focused on the table, fingers occasionally brushing a stray strand of dark brown hair out of her face._

_As soon as Riona stopped analyzing her siblings’ faces, the Sorting Hat was placed on her head, messing up some of her carefully brushed red hair. The Sorting Hat began to whisper to her in a soft, coaxing_ _voice._

_“You are the last of the lot, I presume?” It began. Riona bit back an ugly snort; of course she wasn’t, she was the third-youngest Dumbledore child, for crying out loud!_

_“Second-to-last, Jack’s younger than me,” Riona whispered back with a touch of annoyance. “Or did he lie and say he was older?”_

_The Sorting Hat let out a quiet chuckle. “You’re chatty, Dumbledore. Just like your sister and brother, huh? But never mind that, my choice is made.”_

_The Sorting Hat screeched loud enough to make half of the students in the room cover their ears and wince._ “ _GRRRRRYYYYYYFFFFINNDDOOR!”_

_Cheers and claps bombarded Riona from her new House as she stepped off the platform, feeling her nerves fly off of her mind like butterflies that flew away to find new flowers to drink from. She_ _sighed with relief and flung herself into the nearest chair, high fiving Alia and Jack amid the congratulations and yells. That was when she heard the next name._

_“Grindelwald, Eszter!”_

_The whole Great Hall went silent at the name. It took a good seven and a half seconds for someone to step out of the dwindling bunch of students waiting to be_ _sorted. Riona’s blood ran cold as soon as she focused on the girl that caused every person in the room to shut their mouths and stare at her in awe, shock and fear. Little whispers travelled across the room._

_“Grindelwald?”_

_“It can’t be. I thought that man had no relatives anymore…”_

_“It must be a mistake!”_

_“No way. No. Bloody. Way.”_

_The girl was quite tall for an eleven-year-old, at around five feet and two inches in height. Her hair was long, dark brown to the point where it was nearly black, and fell in a sheet of waves that stopped in the middle of her back. She didn’t look scared, or worried, or nervous at all. She just sat down as if the chair reserved for Sorting was a bench in a park on a sunny spring day._

_Then she looked around the entire Great Hall, revealing cold, frosty blue eyes that seemed to stab everyone that dared make eye contact with them through the piercing, terrifying silence._

_There were no words at all. A small smile appeared on Eszter Grindelwald’s pale, calculating face._

_“RAAAAAAAVEEENNNCCLLLAWWW!”_

_The silence lasted for another four seconds before the Ravenclaws began to cheer and congratulate her as if everything was normal, as if a descendant of one of the most evil wizards ever known to the world of magic hadn’t just joined their house._

_Then Eszter Grindelwald locked eyes with Riona Dumbledore, and after someone at her table whispered the redhead’s name to her, her smile morphed into an apathetic, contemptuous frown._

_Riona’s temper rose as that condescending, crooked, and uncannily evil expression deepened. No one had given her such a blatantly uncaring look before that day, and Riona knew that her indignation was clearly written all over her face. Her frustration only made the brunette girl seem to bite back a laugh._

_Everything about this Eszter Grindelwald was unknown to the redhead, but she could assume a single idea._

She doesn’t like me. 

And, honestly, neither do I. 

_Riona didn’t know it then, but she was right about Eszter and herself on that first day of school, because the girls’ dislike for each other grew with each passing month._

_Now, this wasn’t just a little bit of animosity, because the two students would soon be on opposite ends of an all-out rivalry._  
  


**°°°**

**3 Years Later:**

**October 6, 1974**

“You call that a _hit_ , Dumbledore?! Don’t make me laugh.” 

Riona rolled her eyes and focused on her bat. Being a Quidditch player meant focus and concentration, but Emerson Jeong’s yelling wasn’t helping her at all with neither focus nor concentration. The Bludger sailed past the hoops that the Quaffle was thrown into for goals and onto the vast expanse of lightly swaying grass below. 

_Emerson, be a good Keeper and leave your tired Beater in peace, will you?_

“Well, for Merlin’s sake, it isn’t _my_ fault I didn’t get any bloody sleep last night!” Riona snapped as she prepared for another hit, clutching her bat tight enough for her knuckles to turn white. 

“Alright, alright, calm down,” Emerson sighed, nonchalantly running a hand through his messy black hair. “It’s not like Kendra just got hit by an Unforgivable Curse. Relax, Dumbledore, it isn’t the end of the world.” 

This time, the redhead hit the Bludger in the Keeper’s direction, and the ball nearly slammed into his arm as it whizzed by.   
“Now I see why Madam Hooch regrets her decision of putting you on the team…” The Keeper wheezed as he easily dodged the ball. “Geez, talk about _anger issues._ ”

“Shut it, Jeong,” Riona replied with a glare, but trailed off as she saw two familiar figures on the field below. The sight of two pairs of piercing green eyes immediately let Riona know who had come to watch her practice. 

“Oh, hey, Alia! Jack!” The redhead flew downwards, nearly hitting her younger twin brother in the face with the end of her broom. Jack ducked in time to dodge the broom and quickly smiled up at her. 

“Hi, _Ronnie_.” He playfully dragged out Riona’s annoying childhood nickname with a mocking laugh, and Riona felt her face slowly turn the color of a tomato as she processed what her younger twin brother had just said.

“JACK!” She screamed, elbowing him. “You can’t just say that in public!” 

“Can _so_!” 

“Can _not_! I swear to Merlin, how many times have I— _Jeong, what the hell_?!”

When the redhead noticed that Emerson was standing a few feet away, biting his lip to hold in what was probably loud laughter, she shot him an annoyed glare, earning a raise of the Keeper’s eyebrows and an upwards movement of his hands in surrender. 

“He can say it whenever he wants, Ronnie. Just relax, will you?” Alia, ever the mediator, chimed in, placing a gentle, calming hand on her sister’s shoulder. Bright, lively green eyes seemed to stare right through Riona’s chocolate colored gaze as her dark-haired sister gave her a smile and started asking about her day before Quidditch practice. 

After a long talk about activities and plans, and some more practicing and yelling, Riona joined her siblings on the ground and began to head back to Hogwarts. So far, her fourth year was going very well, and as usual, her grades were stellar and sky-high, compared to most of her classmates and the slackers of her house. Riona breathed in the sweet smell of the crisp autumn air before— 

“Girls like that are hard to come by, Hendricks. Take a shot at the Beater while you still can.” 

The sentence that hit Riona’s ears immediately made her tense up and turn around. A group of boys sat on the fields, chatting and laughing over a few apples. She recognized them from the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Quidditch teams, and this particular bunch tended to whistle at the pretty girls walking by or make out with an unfortunate witch they’d set their eyes on a week before. They were obviously talking shamelessly about her, and she hastily walked over, hands clenched into fists. 

“It’ll be hard, though,” the blonde boy in the middle, Hendricks, muttered, “since she wears the Quidditch stuff most of the time and doesn’t hang around boys much, unless her dickhead brother is walking around—” 

“The hell do you mean, ‘ _dickhead_ ’?” Riona demanded, marching closer with a snarl. 

Three equally large, athletic male heads turned to face her simultaneously, then Hendricks smirked at her. 

“Well, look who it is. _Ronnie Dumbledore’s_ here.” The incredibly annoying blonde boy drawled at her, and looked her up and down in a way disgusting enough to cause Riona’s anger and irritation to flare. 

“Cut it out, Hendricks. Now stop badmouthing my brother,” Riona snapped, clenching her fists and walking closer to the group of boys. 

“Or what? You’ll call your big sisters to come over and lecture us? Tattle to your _dear old granddad_ about how we hurt wittle Wonnie’s feelings? Nice try, _sweetheart_ , but you can’t shut us up.” 

Riona’s anger began to rapidly rise at the taunt about her grandfather, and she could already feel furious heat flooding her face. Although Albus Dumbledore, one of the most renowned wizards of the century, was the headmaster of Hogwarts, she _never_ asked him for special treatment when it came to academics. It was a strict rule in her family not to purposely mooch off of other family members for certain privileges. 

A small crowd began to gather as the argument heated up between Riona and the Hendricks boy, whispering about everything that was happening, but Riona didn’t care. 

“Don’t bring my grandfather into this, you foul, arrogant _son of a—!_ ”

Suddenly, the crowd parted like the Red Sea as a tall person with hair tied back in a neat, loosened braid began to slowly walk towards her and the other boy. The person wore a white, long-sleeved oxford shirt and a grey sweater-vest over that, complete with a blue-and-silver tie. The ebony slacks they wore were simple and a bit loose, and their black, spit-shined boots gleamed in the sun as the person walked forward. 

The familiar outfit the person was wearing brought a small twitch to Riona’s hands as she realized who’d joined the fight.

_Eszter Grindelwald herself_ had randomly decided to waltz into the argument, to Riona’s complete and utter annoyance. 

The foreign Ravenclaw girl the redhead hated with her very soul and being hadn’t changed much over the years, minus the fact that her hair was now cut down to the end of her shoulder blades and that she’d gotten four inches taller. Her gaze was as regal and cold as ever, cutting into everything she glared at with the precision and sharpness of a brand new ice pick.

_Yes_ , she was a prefect at a surprisingly young age, only due to her top marks and magical talent, to the shock of many students.

_No_ , she did not like Riona Dumbledore. She was her rival, after all.

“Dumbledore?” She asked in her low, slightly accented voice. “What is going on here?”

“Oh, it’s Grindelwald!” One of Hendricks’ buddies had just noticed the other girl. “Trust me, Grindelwald, I didn’t do anything just now, so why are you here—?“

“ _Shut up,_ ” Eszter deadpanned, “I was asking _Dumbledore_ about the situation, not _you_. And you’ve obviously done something.”

“How would you know I did anything, eh?”

“If you weren’t starting anything,” The prefect paused long enough for a conniving, teasing smirk to crawl onto her face, “then Dumbledore’s face wouldn’t look like a boiled tomato by now.” 

This comment only made Riona turn even redder with indignation as a round of laughter followed the prefect’s words. Merlin, did the redhead _hate_ that contemptuous, mocking little smirk, even more so when it was paired with a thinly veiled insult.

“Now, I’ll ask you again, Dumbledore,” Eszter said coolly, “What is going on here?”

“Those boys were insulting Jack, and I started defending him,” Riona declared with a frustrated huff, sticking up for her brother as she shot a glare at her and Jack’s offenders. 

“Oh, so Hendricks was _badmouthing_ someone? Hm, I guess this calls for me to report to a teacher, and off to detention you’ll go,” Eszter’s voice was like a cold dagger dipped in sugar, saccharine and icy enough to scare plenty of people.

“Oi!” Hendricks yelled. “If you saw this situation from _my_ point of view—“

“From _your_ point of view? Honestly, I’d love to see this problem from your perspective, but I’m afraid I’m not flexible enough to put my head _that_ far up my ass.”

Some jeering and shouting followed her brief, but stone-cold statement. The clearly offended boy scoffed and stood up with the rest of his disgusting friends, and Riona could easily see that his face was most likely redder than her own was a few moments ago.

“Merlin, she’s a stone-cold bitch,” Hendricks muttered, but not quietly enough for a still smirking Eszter to miss his insult.

“What was that?” The prefect asked coldly, and her glacial tone made Hendricks pale considerably.   
  
“N-Nothing,” He replied softly, visibly shaking where he stood. 

“That’s what I thought. Now get out of my sight before I send you and your shitty excuse of an entourage to detention.”   
  
Riona’s relief was short-lived as everyone but Eszter left the area where the argument had been. Cold blue eyes met warm brown ones as the brunette brushed invisible flecks of dust off of her clothing.   
  
Eszter was always needlessly meticulous; _a neat freak_ , to put it lightly. It was another way that the girls’ personalities clashed, and added to their ongoing mutual animosity. The two students continuously tried to outdo each other, to prove that Grindelwald was better than Dumbledore would ever be, or vice versa. If one of them got a great score on an exam, the other would try their best to do just as well, if not better. If one of them started a verbal fight, the other would finish it.

It was a kind of war where actions always spoke louder than words, and talking only exchanged more blows. Many had tried to end the rivalry or at least improve relations, but all had gloriously failed. Eszter and Riona’s mutual dislike for each other was one that knew absolutely no bounds; there was always some way that one would find the other to be a problem.   
  
_The rivalry was like a continuously ticking time bomb; one never knew when it would completely explode, just like their grandfathers’ enmity had decades ago._

Riona spoke first after a long silence. 

“So, why did you come over here? _For real?”_

“I was patrolling halls for prefect duty, obviously,” Eszter replied with a small shrug, and Riona’s annoyance flared again.   
  
“Okay, that actually makes sense,” The redhead murmured, then her tone went from musing to demanding, “But seriously, why’d you get into this whole fight in the first place, Grindelwald?”  
  
“You’re mad at me now, aren’t you?” Eszter asked with a little scoff, completely dodging the question.

“Honestly, a ‘ _thank you_ ’ would be nice.”   
  
“Why should I suddenly thank you, huh?” 

_Maybe she’ll get mad and tell me, so then I’ll know why the hell she scared off Hendricks._  
  
“Because if I hadn’t come over, your little spat with Hendricks could have gone from an argument to assault in _two seconds flat._ One of you was going to do something physical to the other and we both know it. So you might as well thank me for saving you from a beating...or worse.” 

“Alright, fine, thank you!” Riona groaned, frustratedly throwing her hands up in the air. “Merlin, aren’t you tired of being such an _ass_ all the time?”  
  
Eszter’s smirk returned and widened considerably as she stepped a tad closer, suddenly making the redhead feel much smaller even if the other girl was only two inches taller.

“Ouch, Dumbledore, that was such an insult. How long did it take you to come up with that one? Two weeks? _Three_?”   
  
“ _A few seconds_ , thank you very much.”

“Oh, sure, and with _your_ vocabulary? Don’t lie to me, Dumbledore, you aren’t smart enough to think up something like that.”   
  
“Oh, you take that back, you—!”

“HEY!” A voice rang out behind Riona before she could spit out her own witty remark.

She and Eszter turned around, and that moment would change their lives forever.


	2. Tutoring and Troublemakers

Eszter and Riona faced a tall-ish, lanky boy with glasses and vibrant hazel eyes. His black hair was all over his face, and it kind of reminded Riona of her brother’s room back at home, since, like that hair, it could have easily won awards for its messiness.

“Who are you?” Riona let herself be the first one to speak. It was just a question to clarify exactly who this boy was, because she’d seen him before and knew his name quite well.

_He was James Potter, the biggest troublemaker at school._

James had earned quite a reputation in Hogwarts since late November of his first year. One sunny morning, he’d set off a bunch of fireworks in the Owlery, which had resulted in one hell of an explosion, a bunch of angry students and teachers, and a variety of terrified birds. Since that incident, James Potter and the group of friends he’d gathered soon afterward were known as the Marauders, or the robbers, since most of their shenanigans now involved stealing, harassing, and plundering.

“Who am _I?_ ” James asked, his voice laced with feigned incredulity. “Why, I’m James Potter, the one and only, and I know that you’re Riona Dumbledore, because, well, _everyone_ knows you. Right, you’re…,” He turned to Eszter, “Eliana…Essie…Ella…Estelle…yeah, Estelle Grindelwald?”

“ _Eszter_. Eszter Grindelwald,” The other girl replied with a distrusting glance at James, “What do you want?”

“ _I_ will be the one answering questions, Miss Grindelwald.”

Riona immediately recognized the petite, stern professor who’d stepped out from behind James. Professor Flitwick, Riona’s kindest and favorite teacher, wasn’t usually seen strolling around outside of the school, so his presence very nearly made the redhead do a double take right then and there.

“I would like to talk to you about something, Dumbledore and Grindelwald,” the professor began, stepping in front of the three students, “James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black are falling behind severely in class, and are on the verge of taking Remus Lupin’s grades down with them.” 

“Oh, please, we are _not_ —!”

“Mr. Potter, please remain silent,” Professor Flitwick harshly cut him off, then stepped close to Riona and Eszter. “Hogwarts has a standard for high marks, and since you two girls are remarkably talented students with excellent scores, I would like to ask something from you.”

He paused for a moment to take a deep breath, then looked the girls in the eyes as he spoke up once more.

“I would like the two of you to tutor these boys. _Together_.”

The words hit Riona like a ball slamming into her stomach.

_I._

_Will_ _._

_Be._

_Tutoring._

_The._

_Marauders._

_With._

_Eszter._

_Grindelwald?!_

_“_ What?!” The redhead was the first to speak while her eyes widened with shock. “P-Professor, you mean you’re making me and Grindelwald...work together?”

“Absolutely,” Professor Flitwick replied, then let out a deep sigh, “Now, I understand that you and Miss Grindelwald... _aren’t_ on the best terms, but you girls are some of the most capable students I know. You are exactly the pair I need to tutor Mr. Potter and his friends, and I assure you, this won’t be as bad of a situation as you think. Do you girls have any questions about this?”

Riona shook her head, feeling a layer of dejection, speechlessness, and indignation coat her entire being in a flash.

“Splendid! You girls will meet with the boys in my classroom for tutoring after lunch.”

With that, the tiny professor left the three students behind, leaving an odd, uncomfortable silence in his wake before Riona finally relocated her ability to talk.

“A-Alright.”

It was the one word she managed to force out before pivoting on her heel and leaving the fields.

°°°

The food in the Great Hall was just as good and filling as it looked, but Riona’s appetite disappeared quickly as she thought of the upcoming tutoring session after lunch. She sat next to Kendra at the Gryffindor table with a frown and in no mood to eat, and among the Gryffindors who noticed her dismal behavior, Kendra was the first to speak up. 

“Ronnie, what’s wrong?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. “You usually eat way more than this!”

“I suppose you’ve eaten at least three servings of the exact same food by now, Kendra, you have no right to judge!” Riona shot back with a halfhearted grin. It was a known fact in the Dumbledore family that Kendra was capable of eating an uncannily large amount of food without a stomach ache or significant weight gain afterwards, an ability that was a complete mystery to anyone who had witnessed it.

“Yeah, I can’t judge, I’ve already eaten three spoons of salad by now. Anyway, I heard the news about the tutoring,” Kendra told her matter-of-factly, tucking a stray lock of hair behind Riona’s ear. 

“Wait, already? It’s been only ten minutes since _I_ got the news, so how did you know so—?” 

“News flash: gossip travels fast around here, doofus,” The older Dumbledore noted with a grin, “Of course I’d know about this only a few minutes after it went public. Besides, the tutoring won’t be that bad. I mean, I heard the Marauders can be nice, and honestly, they’re kind of _cute_ too—!”

“OI!”

“Just kidding!” Kendra laughed, ruffling Riona’s hair to her extreme annoyance. 

Riona hated when anyone ruffled her hair, especially in public, since according to her siblings, curly auburn hair existed to be ruffled, played with, or braided into insanely complex hairstyles that took hours to take apart.

“Honestly, I don’t know what Flitwick’s thinking. I mean, really, it’s kind of unexpected,” Riona replied. “Also, I’m partners with _Grindelwald_ , of all people, so I’m stuck tutoring with a sarcastic _asshole_ who judges everything I do and acts like a—!”

“ _ **PETER LESLIE PETTIGREW!**_ ”

A smoking Howler dropped by an owl onto the poor boy’s desk ripped open as it began to shout in a furious male voice over the snickering caused by Peter’s awful middle name. “ _ **HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU, STUPID CHILD, NO MARKS BELOW AN ‘A’, AND WHAT DO I SEE?? A P! A BLOODY P!! YOU USELESS—!**_ ”

The paper suddenly burned up as James Potter flicked his wand and set the Howler on fire. 

Riona cast an unimpressed glance at the boy before facing her sister again. “Who burns this kind of stuff on _wooden tables_? _Wooden. Bloody. Tables._ Do you realize what kind of idiots I’m dealing with?”

Kendra wasn’t even listening to her sister, too busy laughing her head off at Peter Pettigrew’s middle name and the new complaints to pay attention. Riona groaned in exasperation at that reaction, then noticed a person hurrying towards her table.

“Lily!” She squealed happily, hugging her best friend in the entire world tightly as she ran over. 

Lily Evans had been her closest friend since the middle of second year, and was the nicest person Riona knew. Not only that, but they looked incredibly similar for a pair of best friends, as they both had most of the same facial features, so they could easily trick people into thinking that they were related.

“Hi, Riona!” Lily greeted her with a smile on her face, green eyes twinkling with energy that usually came from hearing some good gossip. “Is it true that you and Eszter are tutoring the Marauders?”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

“Well,” Lily shrugged, “it can’t be helped.”

As soon as Riona opened her mouth to speak, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up to see Eszter standing behind her with an expectant look on her face.

“Dumbledore, are you coming or not?” She folded her arms and waited for Riona to finish whatever she was doing. “We have tutoring to get over with.”

“Fine, whatever,” Riona rolled her eyes and stood up. She and Eszter walked out of the Great Hall at a pace fast enough to trip a few people unlucky enough to be walking by. As soon as they were out of earshot, Riona began to speak.

“Are you fine with all of this tutoring nonsense?” She asked angrily. “Because you seem absolutely thrilled by the fact that you’ll be teaching a group of crazy boys with no sense of respect _whatsoever_.”

“Well, I guess it’ll give me an excuse to skip Transfiguration.”

“You don’t like Transfiguration?”

“Who does?”

“Me.”

“Wow, and for a second there I thought you had taste.”

There was a small silence before Eszter locked eyes with her. 

“Oh, by the way, here,” She rifled through her pockets before pulling out a handful of Sickles.

“Go use these to buy yourself some better slander, Dumbledore. ‘Asshole’ won’t get you anywhere,” Eszter snapped, then marched ahead of Riona, leaving her behind with a handful of coins and another silence as a reply.

It took Riona exactly five and a half seconds to figure out that those coins were actually expired chocolate circles. Then it took another thirty seconds for her to catch up to Eszter with an offended scoff.

°°°

Riona trudged towards the doorway to the Charms classroom dejectedly, knowing that she couldn’t delay this session any longer. She shuffled into the Charms classroom, where all four of the Marauders were waiting. 

That was when she looked, _really looked_ , at the Marauders for the first time in her entire life.

The first boy, who looked more like a delinquent than any of the other Marauders, she didn’t recognize, since most of his dark hair was all over his face and getting in the way of his bright, dark grey eyes. The boy next to him was by far the least disheveled of the group, with neatly brushed hair the color of sand, a smattering of scars all over his face, and grey-green eyes that seemed to stare straight into Riona’s soul. The shortest of the group was jumpy and measly, and his brown hair was even messier than the raven-haired boy’s. James sat in the front of the room, lounging nonchalantly in his seat as if he were the king of his own little world.

They all looked up simultaneously to see Riona. 

“Hey, hey, hey, look who it is!” The raven-haired boy laughed. “Guys, we’re getting tutored by Riona Dumbledore! Y’know, the Headmaster’s granddaughter or something!”

“We heard,” The other three deadpanned simultaneously, then burst out laughing along with the other boy. For once in her life, Riona, feeling entirely confused by that response, didn’t know what to say. 

“Yeah, I’m Riona, nice to meet you,” She finally replied. “Professor Flitwick asked me and Eszter to tutor you, because, you know…your grades suck..”

The smallest boy’s eyes became wider than dinner plates at the sound of her rival’s name. “Wait, you mean _ESZTER GRINDELWALD_?!”

“Yes, her.”

“Oh, bloody hell,” The boy murmured in pure horror while the color drained from his face.

“Calm down, Peter,” The scarred boy piped up calmly. “It’s not like she’ll _murder_ you or anything.”

“Remus, if she had the choice, no offense to her, but Grindelwald would be capable of killing us all,” James argued with a chuckle, but his laughter was cut short as Eszter walked in.

“Hello, everyone,” The prefect nodded at the people in the room, scanning the area with her frosty blue gaze, “For those of you who don’t know me well, my name is Eszter Grindelwald. I’ll be tutoring you with Dumbledore.”

“So, you’re a Grindelwald,” the grey-eyed boy noted, then shot Eszter a questioning glance. “Are you _German_ or something?”

“No, I’m not German,” the Ravenclaw replied, clearly taken slightly aback by the question, “Why are you even asking—?”

“Okay, got it, _definitely_ not German...are you Austrian?”

“No, and why do you even bother—!”

“ _Swiss_?”

“ _No_. Now please pay attention to what me and Dumbledore have to say, Black.”

Riona recognized the surname immediately. The Black family was infamous for its disgustingly cruel beliefs against various things, especially wizards with at least a drop of Muggle blood. Sirius, ironically, didn’t look at all like a posh, vile pureblood supremacist; he just looked in serious need of a hairbrush, preferably some counseling, and a good education.

“Alright, listen up. Apparently, since most of your grades aren’t exactly wonderful, except mine and Dumbledore’s, we have to tutor you for the next four months—!”

“ _Four months?!?!_ ” Everyone else in the room cried at the same time. Eszter shot them an icy glare and they immediately went silent.

“Sadly, yes. Just so you know, this more of helping with homework than tutoring, so you’re not going to get lectures from us every day. So, anyway, take out whatever homework you have and we’re going to help you with it…somehow. Dumbledore, any ideas on how this thing should work?”

“Okay,” Riona cleared her throat, “I think we should split into two study groups. I can take…” She stopped mid-sentence, realizing that she’d forgotten the names of the boys.

“I’ll be in your group.” The green-eyed boy cut her off. “I’m Remus Lupin, by the way. James and I can work in your group, right?”

“Sure, whatever,” James deadpanned unenthusiastically from the other side of the room.

Eszter let out a small sigh. “I guess I’m taking Black and…Pedro?”

“Peter,” The small boy nervously corrected her. “And the other person in your group is _Sirius_.”

“Alright. Sirius and Peter, come over here and take out your homework,” Eszter immediately began explaining the concept of some random Muggle text that one of the professors had made Peter memorize. After sneaking a glance at the clock, Riona also began helping the boys in her group figure out what to do with their questions and explain the answers.

“Why is Peter so nervous around Eszter?” Riona asked James a few minutes into the tutoring. “I mean, not just nervous, but flat out _terrified_ of her?”

“Well, last year, Eszter brutally destroyed him in Defense Against the Dark Arts once. Our assignment was to face off in a practice duel, and the poor guy didn’t just lose horribly, but he also got slammed into a desk by one of her spells when he lost. He’s been scared as hell of her ever since, and I would be too if I’d been in an accident like that.”

An hour later, Professor Flitwick walked in and glanced at the boys’ notes and homework. 

“Good work, girls.” He said, approving of the notes and little suggestions they’d written on the boys’ papers. “Next tutoring session is on Friday at four o’ clock sharp!”

As soon as the students were released, Riona bolted out the door, along with Eszter. They walked in silence for a while, not saying anything at all to each other, the only sound in the hallways being the clicks of Riona’s platform shoes and Eszter’s boots on the smooth, cold floor.

Suddenly, there was a sharp cry, a few thumps, a shout of pain, and a loud clamoring behind them. They both turned around in a hurry to see all four of the Marauders in a heap on the floor behind them. Sirius ended up on the bottom and groaned in pain, Remus was crushed by an obviously breathless James, and a pale, terrified Peter sat on top of them all.

“You forgot your quill, Riona!” He stuttered, and carefully stepped off of his pile of friends to give her the item she left in the classroom. Riona nodded as she held in a bout of laughter, bid the boys goodbye, and ran back to her dormitory.

As soon as she walked into the Gryffindor common room, Lily ran up to her with a mug of hot chocolate and a big blueberry muffin.

“So, how was it?” She asked, clearly on the verge of peppering her with an onslaught of exciting questions.

Riona laughed, grinning at her friend. “Merlin, you have no idea.”


	3. Flashbacks and Foul Situations

**March 14, 1973**

_She’s bound to become a murderer, I know it._

_Merlin, she is such an ungrateful little bitch._

_People like her don’t belong in our school._

_Dumbledore did the right thing by locking up her grandfather, so why the hell didn’t he do the same to her?_

_Stabbing, hateful comments like those followed the then-second year Eszter Grindelwald around Hogwarts like moths flew around an eternally burning flame, never ceasing to give her a moment of peace. Clearly, the Ravenclaw’s classmates wanted to make it all the more obvious that they hated her guts for doing virtually nothing but existing, nothing but having such an unfortunate surname._

_‘Grindelwald’ was a surname that was the equivalent of stamping ‘dark wizard’, ‘no-good bastard’, ‘criminal’, and ‘villain’ in red paint across her forehead, and that was a burden she’d had to the carry since the moment she showed up at Hogwarts._

_And unbeknownst to the entire student population, it wasn’t even her actual last name._

_Getting ‘Grindelwald’ on her name was the result of an accident while her personal records were being taken to the British Ministry of Magic for inspections. Apparently, the Auror assigned to take her papers to the Ministry Splinched, with half of his body remaining by Eszter’s apartment complex while the other half with the papers landed in a very acidic English bog._

_When the papers were recovered, they were damaged to a point where the only last name they could find that wasn’t erased or had been broken off by the acid in the bog was ‘Grindelwald’, her mother’s maiden name. The Ministry hoped it was her real surname as to not make another copy of the delicate, valuable records, they sent the last name they found in the bog in as Eszter’s surname to Hogwarts, an error that proved fatal for the Ravenclaw’s social life at school._

_As an onslaught of vicious, quiet hatred bombarded her yet again in the halls, Eszter made her way down a twisting, narrow stone hallway to the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom, with her books in hand, a calm expression, and her head held high as if she didn’t care at all about what was being said about her._

_She stepped into the classroom with no hesitation, claiming a desk towards the front of the room and setting her heavy books down with a small huff. After carefully placing a few sheets of clean paper in front of her take notes, Eszter looked up to face the board at the front of the room, waiting for the professor to walk in and start the class._

_“Aren’t you supposed to be in Potions, Grindelwald?”_

_The suspicious voice to her left made the second year turn, meeting the questioning, interrogative gaze of Riona Dumbledore._

_The two of them had disliked each other since their first year, the tension evident in both of their gazes as they observed each other like two gladiators poised to fight to the death._

_“I got a schedule change, Dumbledore. Seriously, why else do you think I’d be here?” Eszter replied coldly, narrowing her eyes at Riona. “And please, stop looking at me like I’m going to murder everyone in this room, it’s getting annoying.”_

_“To be honest, you’re clearly capable of killing everyone here. At this point, you really shouldn’t be surprised that people look at you like you’re about to commit murder.”_

_“Dumbledore, if I was going to kill the people here, everyone would already be dead, starting with_ you _.”_

_“Why am I not surprised?”_

_“Girls, are you quite done chatting?”_

_Eszter and Riona looked up simultaneously, breaking their tense, hateful eye contact to face Professor Frey, who was watching them with a slightly amused expression. The teacher’s orange gaze zeroed in on them like a gun’s scope on two targets; making the redhead next to Eszter visibly flinch while the Ravenclaw met that look with her own placid one._

_“Y-Yes, Professor Frey,” Riona murmured, gaze falling towards her desk as a little devil in Eszter’s mind cackled at her reaction._

_As a response to the teacher’s question, the prefect merely nodded, shifting her attention to the board as Professor Frey left her post at her desk._

_“Now, a reminder for those of you not paying attention, today shall be a class reserved for dueling,_ Dumbledore and Grindelwald _,” the teacher spoke calmly as she addressed her students, “As I noticed you two first, you girls will be in the first duel. Go to the front of the room.”_

_There was a sharp, collective gasp from everyone as the first duelists were called up. A Dumbledore and a Grindelwald hadn’t faced off in decades, and the fact that this was happening again, in a classroom of all places, clearly had the entire class shocked and staring at the two chosen duelists._

_Eszter, retaining her calm composure, simply walked to the left side of the room, boots clicking ominously the whole way there. Nearly every gaze in the room was trained on her, not Riona, filled with partly respect and partly fear of what she might do, for one reason only._

_When the world inevitably threw Eszter Grindelwald to the wolves at Hogwarts, she did not become docile and stay weak like some scared piece of prey._

_Instead, she came back at the head of the pack._

_And with that came power, and an inexhaustible supply of it, that kept those who hated her at bay._

_“I’m going to beat you, Grindelwald,” Riona snapped across from the prefect with a look of savage determination._

_And when Professor Frey began counting down from three, signaling the beginning of the duel, Eszter wasted no time, smirked right back at her, and replied._

_“I’d like to see you go ahead and try.”_

_“BEGIN!”_

_**BLAM!**_

°°°

**November 4, 1974**

Eszter woke up with a start. Her blurred vision could only register dark, unclear silhouettes, and she felt something below her hand; something papery, thin, and fragile. Her vision began to somewhat clear, and she realized what the silhouettes were. 

Then she let out a huff and mentally slapped herself. 

She’d fallen asleep in the library, of all places, after spending hours preparing explanations for the tutoring coming up in four days.

_How could I possibly be so careless? Damn it!_

Eszter let out another dissatisfied sigh as she began to register the meticulously stacked books and papers on the desk she’d fallen asleep on. In front of her lay a neat essay for Charms due in two days, and Eszter swore as she looked at it for the second time.

She’d written the whole thing in _Hungarian._

_Merlin’s beard, how the hell did I screw this up?_

This time, Eszter didn’t just _mentally_ slap herself for accidentally writing in her mother tongue; her hand moved on its own to hit her forehead, making her unwittingly show off a facepalm. 

The window closest to her showed a scenic view of the landscape beyond the school grounds, now inky and dark because it was quite obviously night. The books and shelves around her were bathed in shadows, giving the library a haunted appearance, as if it was a scene straight out of a cliché horror movie.

In that moment, Eszter found herself wishing for _coffee,_ of all things. If she’d had a cup of the caffeinated drink, just _one_ , then she wouldn’t have ended up in this mess, since with coffee, she would have stayed awake, finished a truckload of work like she did every day, and gotten out of the library on time.

But since there was no coffee to stop her from sleeping after working so much, Eszter had to find some way to escape without an extra boost of intelligence and caffeine. 

Luckily, the door was slightly open, so Eszter had some way out, unless she was caught by a professor walking down the halls, or worse. ‘Worse’ meant the subjects of a plethora of rumors surrounding what exactly wandered the school halls after the students were herded into their dormitories for bed. 

A few stories described students who were left in the halls past curfew. Most of the time, these tales ended up with a murdered student lying on the floor in a pool of their own blood in a cold, deserted hall, an unsuspecting victim of a monster lurking around the school.

She took a deep breath and began to tiptoe towards the door.

“Grindelwald, can you hear me?”

Eszter whipped around faster than lightning, biting back a rising scream of shock. Behind her, four pairs of eyes observed her mischeivously; one pair was hazel, another was dark, the third was greenish-grey, and the last pair was silver. 

The Marauders, _all_ _four of them_ , were holed up in the library with her.

Eszter wanted to punch something very, very _badly_.

“ _You_?” She spat in a whisper, eyes narrowing into slits. “Of all people? What the hell are you doing in here?”

“We’re trying to get to our dorm without getting our asses whipped by any teacher who passes by and catches us here,” James replied quietly. “Now come on, someone’s on our tail. I can sense it.”

“So someone managed to start looking for you?”

“Yep.”

Eszter let out an exasperated sigh after a moment of silence, “Well, that’s just _wonderful_ , isn’t it?”

“Shh!” Peter snapped hotly, worry pouring off of him in waves.

“ _‘Shh_ ’ yourself, or _she’ll_ catch us right now,” Remus warned them nervously, looking over his shoulder.

“Who is ‘ _she_ ’?” Eszter asked, genuinely fearing the worst.

“McGonagall, the one and only,” James replied. Eszter’s suspicions turned out to be correct, as she had expected.

“In cat form,” Sirius added with a shudder in his voice.

Now, Eszter really _did_ almost punch something, restraining herself in time to uncurl her right hand out of a fist and relax. That _something_ nearly turned out to be Sirius, who’d somehow been unlucky enough to stand next to her during her moment of slight anger. But, for once in her life, a bad situation like this had surprisingly not been caused by the ever-infuriating Riona Dumbledore.

“So,” She muttered after an even longer silence. “How do we get out of this mess?”


	4. Night Wanderers

Eszter and the Marauders tiptoed towards the door, careful not to make a sound or step on any creaky floorboards. Apparently, the boys knew the place well, so they efficiently guided Eszter through the maze of shelves, dusty halls, and faded books. The only sounds in the room became their sharp, quiet breaths and the chime of the library clock striking one in the morning.

“Are you sure this is the right way?” Remus whispered to Sirius, who was leading the five of them past another five shelves filled with young adult, historical, and mystery novels. “I mean, last time we used another exit, so—!”

“Be quiet! Honestly, do you want us to get caught?” Sirius shot back with a worried edge to his voice.

Remus closed his mouth immediately and continued to walk in silence with the rest of the group. The moon was barely a sliver in the pitch-black sky that was visible from a window next to them, and the light revealed five shadows of the students making their way out of the room. Suddenly, Eszter’s ears picked up a faint sound reminiscent of an animalistic growl.

“Did you hear that?” She whispered, turning to scan the shelves and winding halls behind them.

Suddenly, Peter let out a sharp gasp of pure horror.

“Everyone, hide behind something!” He whisper-yelled, pointing frantically at the ceiling, floor and wall in a panic. “I think it’s McGonagall! She must have smelled us from wherever she was, you know how cats are…”

“See, James?” Sirius cackled quietly as they ran to hide. “This is why we do this magical thing called _showering_ , right?”

James scoffed at him and hid behind a shelf, smothered his laughter, and stopped talking while Eszter rolled her eyes at the jab at Sirius from her spot under a cluttered desk. Its messiness gave her a sudden urge to go clean it up and make it beautiful again, but she forced it down and waited for the professor to go away.

Peter was right. As soon as the cat stepped in with a regal meow, it transformed into one of Eszter’s least favorite teachers; Professor McGonagall herself. The stately woman swept into the room, stepping into the area with the lofty, imperial air of a Renaissance queen. She eyed the library with suspicion, and when her stern, incredibly withering gaze landed on the undeniably messy desk Eszter was hiding under, the expression became distasteful.

The woman began to pace around the library, turning corner after corner, passing shelf after shelf, looking over desk after desk, before finally letting out a tired, serene yawn as she walked out the door. Five minutes later, since the halls and rooms were still quieter than a cemetery at night, the five of them crawled out of their hiding spots.

“Phew,” Remus sighed after a while, “that was a close one.”

“Tell me about it,” Sirius replied with a shudder and a glance over his shoulder. “I swear, if that hag caught us, I don’t think we’d live to see the sun rise again.”

“Oi, McGonagall is way older than us and scary, but she _isn’t_ a hag!” James retorted with a big, disapproving scowl.

“Yeah, I know, McGonagall’s probably 50, but damn, that personality of hers might as well a 90-year-old crone.” Eszter shot back with a tiny grin, relishing the moment where she could complain about one of her least favorite professors without getting a detention.

Everyone else let out quiet chuckles as they continued tiptoeing out of the dusty, dark library. Eszter scanned the room for anymore unsuspecting students or teachers, then focused her attention on Peter’s question.

“So, um, Grindelwald, how’d _you_ end up here? I didn’t think you were crazy enough to sneak around school after hours!” Peter asked from the back of the procession that was currently making its way down a particularly smelly, cramped hall.

“I…” Eszter had a little mental debate about whether to lie about her nap in the library or to spill the story. “I fell asleep.”

In the front of the line, Sirius and James cracked up with all the loudness and crazy laughter of a pair of runaway maniacs, James being the loudest of them both.

“Pfft, ha ha! There’s no way, there’s no way that _you_ , of all people, fell asleep in the bloody library! Ha, you’ve got to be joking!”

“AHA, I can’t believe it! Holy Merlin, holy bloody Merlin, this is just—HA HA!”

Five minutes later, the two Marauders in the front stopped laughing. By then, Remus was cradling both of his ears, insisting that they were bleeding, and Sirius ended up holding a pale, unconscious Peter—he’d fainted somewhere in the middle of James’ terrifying cackling—while muttering to himself about something along the lines of having issues with his eardrums after this.

Eszter looked at the scene before her rather placidly, despite her own ringing ears and the ear-splitting headache that James’ fantastically awful laughing had caused. Now, at least she could negotiate with the morons that had gotten her and themselves out of the library and past Professor McGonagall herself, of all people, and try to get everyone, including herself, back to their common rooms and out of trouble as quickly as possible.

That was when she saw two blurs of red hair sprint into the hall.

The one and only Riona and Jack Dumbledore skidded to a halt in front of Eszter, gaping at her and the boys next to her. Jack kept staring, jaw dropped and eyes wide while Riona’s surprised face contorted into a glare that could even scare the hell out of Professor McGonagall.

“ _You_?!”

“Mhm, me,” Eszter replied with a shrug, meeting her rival’s glowering with an icy look of her own. “What the hell brought you two here?”

There was silence as the Dumbledore twins thought of what to say.

“We…uh…heard some kind of creepy _laughing_ …” Jack said, then closed his mouth and began observing how Sirius pointedly elbowed James, then laughed quietly along with the other Marauder.

When Riona didn’t speak, Eszter took the opportunity to talk, smirking at her enemy with enough condescension to blow up a small town.

“Well, well, well, look who we have here. Riona Dumbledore herself, breaking curfew? Why, it’s a Christmas _miracle_!”

“ _Shut. Up,_ ” Riona snarled, her temper beginning to rise. Eszter bit back another comment to spare herself a beatdown, since the redheaded girl’s temper was completely unpredictable, like a storm on a beautiful sunny day that popped out of nowhere. Tempers and anger were flat-out useless in Eszter’s life, so unlike Riona, she preferred not to get angry, mostly out of unwillingness to know what would happen if she snapped.

“Why are you playing detective and roaming the halls with your brother? It’s what, one in the morning?” Eszter asked, raising a brow.

“I could ask you the same question.”

“There were two questions, which one?”

“Oh, for the love of Merlin…”

Riona’s narrowed dark eyes were fixed on Eszter’s own pale blue ones. They studied each other for a while, like two dangerous predators in the wild facing off for territory and circling each other, waiting for one of them to jump into a fight that could only have one winner.

“Ahem, you two!” Jack whispered. “Don’t fight. We should get back to our dorms, right? Just make peace for now, _please_.”

Eszter nodded. It was so much easier to trust Jack than his older sister in any situation. If Riona was a spiny, tough cactus fresh from the desert, using its spine and its imposing structure to get its way when situations didn’t turn in it’s favor, Jack was calming, peaceful lavender, smoothing out tensions and inducing tranquility wherever it was needed.

“Jack’s…right.” Riona agreed with her brother. “Let’s get this over with.”

The seven of them continued to tiptoe down warped halls, dark rooms, and away from the eyes of portraits and ghosts who happened to be around. They walked in silence, barely acknowledging each others’ existence.

“Grindelwald?”

Eszter turned, taking in James’ eyes on hers. They were hazel, slightly concerned, and held an incoming question that was about to be thrown at her.

“Why do you hate Dumbledore so much?”

_Yes_ , this was a question she was asked so many, _too many_ times.

_No,_ shewouldn’t answer it.

“That’s a story for another time, Potter. I’ll tell you one day.”

_A lie._

She and the rest of the group continued on without as much as another whisper between any of them. Riona stayed in the back of the group with her confused, scared brother. James carried on with confidence with Sirius, while a conscious Peter trudged along in the back like a turtle walking through a pile of mud. Remus casually kept up with the people in the front of the group, making sure no one was left behind, like the Good Samaritan he was.

Riona and Eszter did their part in stopping the group at every corner, making sure that no unsuspecting passerby was around so that they weren’t caught. 

When they finally reached the Ravenclaw dormitory, their first stop since Eszter was the only Ravenclaw in the group, Sirius cleared his throat to make an announcement to the whole group.

“Dumbledore, Grindelwald,” he began, looking at each of them as he spoke, “you two have been helping us for a while now, and since we’re doing our part in helping you get to your dorms, I think that this should be a base for…friendship?”

Riona’s annoyingly composed face contorted as surprise wrote itself on her face. “Black, what the hell are you—?!”

“I want all of us to be friendly with each other.”

Everyone shifted uncomfortably. Jack fidgeted with his watch, Peter’s face turned a hundred shades paler, Remus began to back away, James stared at Sirius in shock, and Riona just flat-out glared at Eszter and Sirius.

To her own surprise, Eszter opened her mouth to respond.

“Alright, seems fair,” She spoke with a cool, collected, and calculating smile. It was expression of peace and diplomacy that held a warning; if anyone argued, they would suffer a horrible death in the next ten seconds.

“We’ll be friends, yes,” She decided to respond, thinking of the second part of her answer before Riona’s anger could unfurl into the childish garbage also known as her words.

“Temporarily.”


	5. Rumor

**November 8, 1974**

The Turkish Angora is a precocious, expensive cat that only the people with enough money, time, and care can afford.

It is beautiful, silky, and demands attention from anything or anyone in its path.

This cat can sense anyone’s tiniest move, action, or other activity. Most of the time.

The Angora is also quite renowned for its rare, exceptional beauty that attracts cat lovers far and wide.

In all honesty, it wasn’t a surprise that the title of “The Angora” went to one of the most beautiful girls at school, and the fifth year Slytherin Keeper, Isolt Donovan-Baykara, carried it with pride, since it was clearly deserved. Although the title was originally used as a taunt because of her origins, it became a long-lasting nickname after she caught the attention of half of the school with a hair flip, a flirtatious smile, and a few bats of her beautiful eyes.

Long, snow-white hair fell to her waist in gorgeous waves, framing her sun-kissed, light tan skin. Her eyes were mismatched; the left one was sapphire blue, and the right one was constantly twinkling with the color of liquid gold. Her body was toned and curvy, attracting lovesick students far and wide. Her gaze, sultry and accentuated by long, mascara-covered lashes, seemed to penetrate everything it saw.

Beauty aside, the Angora was also the one responsible for confirming and starting the most rumors around school, rumors that were the foundation and destruction of everyone’s reputation. Sadly, the Angora had a nasty habit of crushing reputations into particles of dust with enough information to back her motives.

To no one’s surprise, the rumor that Eszter Grindelwald and Riona Dumbledore had befriended the craziest group of boys at Hogwarts reached her ears. The Marauders, Riona, and Eszter were sitting together at a table for lunch, at Remus’ insistence. Riona sat on the opposite side of Eszter, still thinking over her decision to go along with Sirius’ idea and its subsequent, unexpected outcome.

Then, a flash of white caught her eye. She looked up a split second before hearing a distinctly sweet, measured voice from her side of the table less than a foot away from her.

“Oh, so the gossip’s true? Wow, shocker, really!”

Isolt was standing beside them, watching them curiously and blinking a few times. The redhead’s heart flopped like a fish yanked out of water as she came face to face with the Angora, hoping that she wouldn’t hand her a new rumor about her on a silver platter.

“Well, I guess it is.” Riona replied after a moment of awkward silence. “Who told you?”

Isolt laughed cheerfully at that. The sound was like a trickle of honey; so sweet and lovable that Riona had to swallow down a pint of jealousy while her self-esteem plummeted.

“What do you mean, ‘who told me’? Honestly, half the school knows by now, but if you want to hear the specifics, here you go! Just yesterday at dinner I heard from Quentin Lundberg, who heard from Diane Kaufman, who heard from your sister Alia, who heard from—”

“Alright, we get it,” Eszter piped up from the other side of the table, staring down the blonde without as much as batting an eye, “What do you need?”

“Well, why did you guys become _friends_ out of the blue? Blackmail? Favors?” Isolt asked, batting her mismatched eyes. Riona’s self-esteem fell even more at the simple gesture, and Eszter gave the girl an unimpressed side glance that would have sparked a war between her and the people worshipping Isolt.

“Free will,” Sirius insisted, entering the conversation, “I guess since we’re a study group now—”

“You _are_?” Isolt asked. “Since _when_?”

“Since last month,” Eszter deadpanned, swallowing another sip of black coffee. “and you didn’t know? Really, I’m _shocked_.”

“Long story.” James had also apparently joined the storytelling, cutting off Eszter’s sarcastic remark. “Well, anyway, since we’ve been helping each other for a little while, we decided it would be easier for us to try being friends on the basis of help. We’re trying to see where this goes.”

“Interesting,” Isolt spoke after a small pause, “ _very_ interesting. I hope it works out well!” She turned to leave with a small hair flip. “By the way, Dumbledore? Grindelwald? Just for all our sakes, try not to kill each other in the next two weeks!”

With another sugary, warm laugh that made at least four students at the next table sigh out of pure adoration, the Angora sashayed away, smiling and starting up another conversation with her mob of friends and fans.

“How did she end up in Slytherin anyway?” Peter asked, his face the color of a fresh tomato as he watched her go. “She’s so nice!”

“Beats me, _lover boy_.” Sirius laughed, ruffling Peter’s hair. “If you ask her out, maybe she’ll tell you.”

“Oi, shut up!”

“Peter and Isolt sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N—!” 

James elbowed Sirius in the ribs before he could continue his teasing little rhyme. The other boy scoffed with feigned offense and elbowed him back, which resulted in another twenty seconds of scoffs, yells, elbows, and boyish stupidity, which made everyone, even Eszter, either smile or double over laughing at the sight of the two of them acting like three-year-olds.

“Riona, there’s a letter for you.”

Riona turned at the sound of the new voice. It was Alia, holding a small piece of paper in her hand. Her sister’s dark hair was left untied today, allowing her dark curls to frame her face, and her sea green eyes twinkled with their normal, calm happiness. Her uniform was neat and clean as usual, and in her other hand she held a cheesecake.

“Thanks,” Riona replied with a smile, then noticed the cake. “Why’d you get that? You don’t like cheesecake!”

“It’s for Kendra. You know how she is about food.” Alia laughed, then saw a pale, freckled hand on her shoulder. It was Kendra herself, holding both of her sisters in a hard stare.

“What do you mean, ‘you know how she is’?” She demanded lowly, but there was a teasing feeling behind her dark, foreboding tone.

“Don’t give me that, we all know you’re food obsessed.”

“I am no—!”

“Do you think I haven’t seen your cookie stash? Or your giant castle made out of bagels and schmear?”

“Your _what now_?!” The Marauders all shouted at the same time, eyes wide with surprise and awe.

Kendra blushed, face a darker red than a cherry. “Well…um, I…I… _yeah_ , I’m food obsessed, now _hand over the cheesecake_ , you fool. How _dare_ you keep my rightful treasure from me?!” Her tone was booming, commanding and so hilarious that everyone fell over, cracking up even more maniacally than James on the night they snuck back to their dorms.

“Yeah! Sure, take it!” Alia replied through a stream of giggling as she gave her younger sister her prize. Kendra’s smile was almost exactly like that of the Cheshire Cat as she ran away happily.

“You see?” Riona turned to the group behind her as Alia left, leaving the letter. “Food obsessed.”

“She’s not _just_ food obsessed,” Remus retorted, eyes wide with awe at the previous statements. “your sister’s an effing _genius_. I don’t know anyone who can make a castle out of bagels. _Anyone_.”

Riona smiled at that and began to unfold her letter. Her stomach turned a bit with surprise and nerves as she read the first part.

_November 8_

_Dear Ronnie,_

_We need to have a chat whenever you’re free. There is something we must talk about that’s been on my mind, and probably on yours. Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble or anything. It’s just a chat, alright?_

_Love you always,_

_-Grandpa_

_P.S: Give my love to Jack, Alia, your Mum and Dad, and Kendra._

Riona sighed, having no idea what to make of her feelings, got up, and left the table in a hurry. Whatever had to be spoken of was private, so it’s was important and meaningful enough for her to meet her grandfather in his office.

_Don’t worry._ Riona told herself in her mind. _It’s just a chat. Just a chat. A chat. Chat._

_Maybe it’s about the Marauders._

_Maybe it’s about what happened with them and me._

_Then, just maybe, it’s about Grindelwald._

_Oh, God, what have I gotten myself into this time?_


	6. Conversations

Riona quietly walked through halls and up twisting, turning staircases, skipping past teachers and students trying to get to class. After getting a five-minute-long lecture from Professor Levine for running in the halls, she finally found the correct way to her grandfather’s quiet, cozy office she’d been summoned to.

The walk to the office was much faster than that Riona had anticipated, and she immediately made a beeline for a wall with a beautiful tapestry of an enchanted garden on it. She whipped out her wand, tapped the tapestry twice, and uttered a little spell that only the Dumbledore family used to get into the office.

“ _Fidem habeat alas,”_ She muttered.

_Faith has wings._

The tapestry quickly folded into an ornate, smooth door with an equally opulent doorknob. It was a fresh, shiny golden color, like Isolt’s right eye, but twinkled with the silver pieces woven into it, giving it a bumpy texture and an extra defense mechanism against invaders trying to get into the office through the easier entrance.

The door swung open, and Riona stepped inside. 

The office was cozy, comfy, and beautiful, as always. Pictures of past headmasters, long dead by now with the exception of a few, hung on the walls, and Albus Dumbledore’s desk was neat and tidy, making room for a small teapot and two cups. 

Suddenly, a scarlet, fiery flash of movement caught Riona’s eye.

Fawkes, her grandfather’s trusty phoenix, flew over to her arm in seconds and perched on it, letting out delighted caws and chirps as he did so. Riona couldn’t help but smile at the bird’s affection; Fawkes always seemed to adore her, and having that bird around made her feel comforted and loved.

“Missed me, hm?” She laughed, earning an agreeing cross between a chirp and a screech from Fawkes while she gently stroked his brightly colored feathers. “Yeah, me too.”

She turned her attention to the moving, vibrant pictures in her grandfather’s nearby Pensieve, which sat on a nearby table. Silvery-white gas danced and dazzled Riona as she stepped closer, the smoke glittery and beautiful in its own way.

The Pensieve really was portraying a memory, and Riona leaned over to watch it.

°°°

**December 26, 1967**

_“Mum,_ nooo _! Don’t let Jack steal my bagel!!!” Nine-year-old Kendra sobbed as she chased after her little brother in a plush, fluffy winter coat. Her eyes were much bigger than they would be when she became older, but they made her look cute as a button and as lovely as a camellia in full bloom._

_“Well, love, apparently you’ll have to steal it back!” Leonor Dumbledore, also known as ‘Mum’, laughed. Her resemblance to Alia was obvious even from a distance, and once people saw her, they didn’t question why Alia had her thick, dark waves of hair and sun-kissed complexion in contrast to the rest of the family’s auburn curls and paler bodies._

_“Mum, stealing isn’t right,” Alia joined the conversation from her place in the frosty field, focusing on her sloppy, handmade snowman. “Why are they doing it anyway?”_

_“Alia, don’t be so mature at this age! You’re only ten, okay?” Leonor laughed, ruffling her daughter’s hair. Alia huffed with annoyance and ran after her two siblings._

_The memory then closed up on another redhead playing in the snow. It was seven-year-old Riona, waddling through the snow with the grace of a newly hatched duckling. She stumbled on another mound of crisp, crackling snow, falling on her chubby face, but she stood up and began to waddle again, this time towards her siblings._

_The air around Kendra became a lot warmer than the rest of the area as her frustration and indignation built up. This aura usually popped up when Kendra didn’t have her way with her troublemaking siblings, minus Alia, and sometimes it would boil over and cause a small anger release._

_Now, a flustered, pink-cheeked, waddling Riona was making her way the three infuriated children chasing each other around the field; Jack was in the lead, gleefully holding up a bagel, and Kendra was running behind him, screeching age-appropriate insults at him. Alia was running after them, worriedly crying for them all to calm down and make peace._

_“Come back here, you lying, sniveling, nose picking_ stupid _!!” Kendra shouted. Jack skidded to a stop, green eyes wide with awe and indignation._

 _“_ What _did you just call me?” The seven-year old snarled menacingly, his frown angry enough to rival Aberforth Dumbledore’s expression on a bad day._

_“A Stu,” Kendra slowly dragged out one of the most forbidden words of kindergarten vocabulary, “Pid.”_

_“Kendra, Jack, don’t—!” Alia yelled, rushing forward to try to break up the imminent war zone. The poor girl was too late._

_“_ AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH _!” Jack shrieked and launched himself at his elder sister with the expertise of the green-belted karate student that he actually was. Kendra barely dodged the well-aimed kick and threw an elbow into Jack’s stomach, knocking the wind out of him._

_Before anyone could do anything else, snow began to fall seemingly out of a clear blue sky._

_It first fell in little drops, snowflakes kissing the tips of the Dumbledores’ noses. The gentle fluttering of snow soon became terrifyingly thick, enormous waves of snow that fell quickly and heavily, blocking any form of possible resistance by burying everyone outside in itself. There was a variety of reactions to follow the little avalanche._

_“_ Mio Dio _!_ _” Leonor shrieked in the Italian of her childhood, being the first one to come up from the snow. “Kendra?! Jack?! Ronnie?! Alia?!” Then her gaze fell on a short clump of dark auburn hair._

 _“Nate?! Oh my god,_ Nate _, are you alright??!” Leonor’s screams became significantly louder as she saw her husband’s dark auburn hair peeking out of the snow. Mr. Nathaniel Dumbledore, Riona and her siblings’ father and Leonor’s husband, had come outside with a few cups of hot cocoa for the family and had gotten covered in snow._

_“Leonor, for the love of Merlin, I’m fine!” Nate sighed as he made his way out of the snow and embraced his terrified, worried wife. “Where are the kids?”_

_They both looked to the right as Kendra resurfaced, pulling her previously angry little brother out with her. She gasped and coughed out a small amount of snow, disoriented and confused at everything._

_“Kendra!” Jack sobbed, hugging his big sister as if he hadn’t just prepared to beat her up with his karate moves._

_“It’s okay, Jackie, now where the_ hell _are Ronnie and Alia?” Kendra wondered, then met the stern eyes of her father._

_“Kendra Isabella Dumbledore,” He calmly addressed his second-oldest child, “Don’t you dare use the word ‘hell’ until you’re at least twelve, young lady.”_

_“But you do it all the time! You also said…what was it again…oh, right,_ fu _—!”_

 _“Kendra,_ attento a come parli,” _Leonor chided. “Nate, why in the name of Merlin would you swear in front of the children? Are you bloody kidding me? When was this? What if their_ nonna _was home?!”_

 _The husband and wife looked at each other in unmasked terror,“We would have been_ dead _.”_

 _Mrs. Elena Venturi, Leonor’s mother and the children’s_ nonna _, would have mercilessly killed her daughter and son-in-law without hesitation if she had caught even one of them being a bad influence on the children. According to her, the children were meant to keep their childhood as clean as possible so that they could look back happily at their younger days instead of whimpering in embarrassment about something a parent did._

 _A small_ whoosh _caught their attention, and the couple swiveled around to see Alia pop out of the snow, coughing and wheezing._

_Everyone crowded around the eldest Dumbledore child, asking if she was alright and all the other fun details, until she pointed at a little mound of snow behind the family._

_“Look!”_

_There sat Riona, playfully giggling at her family and making mini snowmen. It seemed like a cute, primitive energy was evolving around her, circling in the air and showing off its power to the world. The adults, shocked, turned to each other and back at their third child. Then they realized what had happened._

_“Riona…the snow…” Leonor began confusedly._

_“She’s awakened her magic! Finally, I knew she’d do it, I knew it!” Nate screeched in happiness, hugging the whole family, Riona included, as they all went back inside for a snack._

_The only thing left outside was Kendra’s bagel, abandoned in the snow for the non-migrating birds to eat as the family shut the door._

°°°

**Five Minutes Later**

“You were so young and cute then.”

Riona jumped at her grandfather’s sudden, soft voice, stepping away from the Pensieve while Fawkes flew off of her arm, then faced the Manchu the phoenix was now comfortably perching on. “Mhm, look at me now, eh?”

They both laughed and settled into two comfy, brown armchairs facing each other by a fireplace that blazed with warm, spark-filled flames. The warmth and comfort of the atmosphere caught Riona in a maze of daydreams as she began adjusting to the peace and quiet of the room and her grandfather.

Albus Dumbledore spoke after a quiet moment. “Tea, Ronnie?”

“No, thank you, I just had lunch.” 

“Your loss.”

They laughed again, knowing that he was right, since the tea magically brewed by Dumbledore was one of the best things ever created, according to literally everyone who had tried it. Riona shifted in her chair, watching Fawkes gently coo and chirp as he snuggled up to her grandfather.

“What did you want to talk about?” She asked. Her grandfather blinked for a few seconds, then calmly spoke.

“I wanted to speak to you about Miss Grindelwald.”

There was a small silence between them. Riona knew how her father felt about Eszter’s family, her grandfather in particular. Gellert Grindelwald and Albus Dumbledore hadn’t been on good terms, or even speaking terms, for more than two and a half decades. She waited for her grandfather to speak again.

“How are relations between you two?”

Riona began to think of a response between ‘Eszter’s a sarcastic, apathetic bitch’ and ‘Eszter is a decent “friend” of mine’, but instead her mouth formed a completely different response. 

“Everything is fine between us,” She began slowly, as if telling the absolute truth, “We’ve decided that it’s time to cast aside our differences and maintain good relations for as long as possible.”

_We’ve decided that we should try being ‘friends’ for our own benefit and not for good relations._

“We’ve found multiple things that we have in common with each other.”

_We’ve found multiple reasons to kill each other._

“I think it’ll work out just fine, to be honest.”

_I think that only one of us will survive the next few months, as far as I know._

All three responses had been easy to throw out of her brain and quick to make up. Lying to her grandfather about anything was a first for Riona, but it would have to do if she didn’t want a lecture about why Eszter is very much like her grandfather and some other similar bullshit from her grandfather.

“That sounds lovely,” Her grandfather replied, seemingly turning the words over and over in his head before responding, “It’s nice that you two are finally getting along for once. You two are total opposites, after all. Brunette and redhead. Blue eyed and brown-eyed. Capricorn and Cancer. Passive aggressive and world-destroying rage—”

“Grandpa, I’m pretty aware of my anger issues, so don’t worry about me screwing half of the planet with one emotional burst,” Riona scoffed, turning away so she could roll her eyes in peace.

“I think a good therapist would help you with that,” The older man offered, a kind twinkle appearing in his eyes.

“You should ask the last _ten_ if you want an answer to your suggestion,” Riona laughed.

“Wait, _how many_ —?!”

“Ten, you heard me correctly. Dad failed miserably with my anger issues.”

They both laughed at that and began asking and answering questions about the matter at hand, to Riona’s annoyance. The conversation was, as a whole, very discouraging, and as far as she cared, Eszter Grindelwald could go and hang herself from a burning chandelier if she damn well pleased. 

Some of the responses were straight from her heart:

“If you were on fire and Eszter had a cup of water, what would she do?” Her grandfather asked.

“Knowing her by now, she’d probably drink it and let me turn into a pile of ashes.”

“I swear to Merlin, she’s as considerate as her grandfather.”

A few of her grandfather’s answers were pretty foreboding and made Riona have terrifying mental pictures.

“Eszter is a neat freak, seriously.”

“That makes me wonder what she’ll do to your hair if given the chance,” Dumbledore laughed, and Riona mentally made a promise to never be caught alone with Eszter in a room with a brush.

By the end of the conversation, Riona was mentally drained and exhausted, so she looked at the clock. It was nearing three in the afternoon, and she shivered at the thought of the drills Emerson would put her through for being late.

“Grandpa, that was a nice chat, but I’ll have to go now. Emerson’s going to skin me alive if I don’t get to Quidditch now…” She nervously thought of Emerson’s terrifying, furious face when he was annoyed, and that thought alone began made Riona practically _run_ out the door.

Dumbledore made no move to stop her as she left. He just sat there, unusually relaxed in his chair, contemplating everything he and Riona had talked about and everything he had just heard. The man sat calmly, tranquil as the atmosphere around him.

When Riona got to the Quidditch pitch, sweating and panting from running so fast and from so far away, her fears were subsequently realized.

Emerson, also known as the extremely pissed, glowering Gryffindor Quidditch team Keeper, didn’t just very nearly skin her alive. He nearly wiped Riona Dumbledore right off the map via lecturing, many sets of grueling drills, and enough yelling to make anyone within a thirty-mile radius temporarily lose their hearing.

In short, Riona had a _lovely_ afternoon after her little chat.


	7. Beautiful

**December 19, 1974**

“I am aware that most of you are leaving for the winter holidays, but that gives no one, I repeat, _no one_ , an excuse to slack off. Let’s take a look at your Transfiguration midterm results, _shall we_?”

Professor McGonagall’s shitstorm had hit Eszter and her class head on just two minutes after the class began. The formidable professor had been completely silent, leaving the confused class to brace themselves for the coming lecture, and _boy_ , did she not disappoint.

Eszter had been expecting a ten-minute review over why they all had to study over the holidays, or maybe just an overview of a subject they’d start next month, but McGonagall had whipped out their midterm papers—the majority of which held less than satisfactory marks—and started a full on, half-hour long rant about their scores.

Which, needless to say, was quite the spectacle.

The only one not pounding their head into a desk or trying to sleep away the ear and head pain brought on by the angry professor was Eszter, calmly staring ahead and watching her teacher rain hell.

“Miss Grindelwald, are you even paying attention?”

Eszter looked up and cast a glance at none other than the pissed professor looming over her desk, scrutinizing her through squinted eyes.

For some reason, over the past few years, Minerva McGonagall had never ceased to hate Eszter Grindelwald’s guts. Was it because no matter how much she didn’t like her, Eszter never stopped passing her class? No! Was it because her student’s grandfather broke her best friend’s heart after he finished school? Erm, _maybe_. But after all these years, McGonagall still decidedly despised her.

“Yes,” she replied quickly, “I’m listening, why are you asking?”

Professor McGonagall cut her off with a disapproving glare. “Because you should be looking at your test like everyone else and reviewing.”

The teacher was right. While Eszter had been looking at the teacher, everyone else, no matter their level of pain or exhaustion, was eyeing their midterms. The Ravenclaw could’ve sighed in defeat right then and there.

“ _Yes_ , but—”

“So follow along like the others for the sake of your grade, and no buts.”

Eszter held back a groan as the teacher returned to her throne at the board of the classroom, barely even listening to the lecture that, to her irritation, kept on going as if nothing had happened. Behind her, Dorcas Meadowes was already snoring, Severus Snape was flicking his own forehead to keep himself awake, Héloïse Beaumont was letting out tiny wails of agony as she clutched her aching head, Riona looked from her desk to McGonagall every now and then, and Isolt was doodling flower wreaths, of all damn things.

As class was dismissed an hour later, Eszter stumbled out first, rubbing her own head. The words and spells her least favorite teacher had just drilled into her head had been carved into her brain with a sharp, unforgiving tool known as Professor McGonagall’s mouth after her little showdown with her in class.

Unfortunately for her, she happened to bump into the loudest source of noise in her year as she rounded a corner.

“ _Hey_!” James greeted her raucously, walking next to her to the Great Hall for dinner. “How was class?”

A withering, ice-blue death glare was sent in his direction as Eszter folded her arms and looked at him. 

“Don’t yell, Potter, I’m trying to salvage whatever’s left of my ability to hear. McGonagall raised some hell today, and I guess half the class is temporarily deaf now,” She noted with a frustrated huff.

“Don’t be so mean right before dinner.” Riona caught up to them, and ended up talking nearly as loudly as James.

“Maybe if both of you weren’t loud enough to make someone lose their hearing, I’d be nicer.”

“Actually, you’d be nicer to us if you didn’t say anything, _asshole_.”

“Didn’t I ask you to buy a better insult than that?” Eszter shot back without missing a beat.

“Yeah, last month.”

“ _No shit, Sherlock_ , and you still didn’t get any. A shame.”

“Sorry, but I really don’t feel up to listening to a bitch today,” Riona growled.

“Well, you sure had no problem paying attention to McGonagall this evening, _hypocrite_.”

Sirius, who apparently heard everything, joined the conversation as a mediator. “Guys, there’s no bloody point in fighting right now. Can we at least eat in peace? We’re _friends_ now, right?”

Everyone shut up, had a little moment of clarity, and continued making their way to the Great Hall.

°°°

Dinner looked as scrumptious as it would any other day, and tasted just as breathtakingly good, according to the people they happened to pass by. As it turned out, the satisfied students were correct in their judgement as everyone took a bite of their meals.

“Oh. Oh my _god,_ ” Remus suddenly lost his composure after taking a bite of a sugary piece of peppermint-chocolate cake. “THIS IS _AMAZING_!”

Eszter choked on her black coffee, raising a brow as she turned to face Remus.

Everyone at the table, including the Marauders, swiveled around to gape at the normally calm brunette boy who was currently losing his mind over one piece of cake. Sure, it was delicious, but no one expected _Remus_ , of all people, to go completely nuts over food, since that was normally Kendra Dumbledore’s job. 

“Remus, mate, calm down…” Sirius began to sweet-talk his friend, whispering to Remus in a singsong voice as if the brunette was a crying toddler. “Happy place, think of your happy place…”

“ _DELICIOUS_! This is great, you should try this...absolutely...WOW!” Remus proclaimed enthusiastically, and proceeded to tear into the dessert.

Everyone at the table looked only at him for the next fifteen seconds before anyone spoke. The scene was a little, well, _unnatural_ to them, and there was a thought running through Eszter’s head that she suspected was also nagging at her tablemates.

_Is Remus Lupin’s weakness…cake?_

“Whoa,” Isolt breathed from her seat, her mismatched eyes wide with surprise and curiosity. “Remus sure has a thing for that kind of stuff. Is he always like this around cake?”

_What do you think?_

“How should I know?” Peter cried. “Remus doesn’t eat cake that often, so how can I even tell?!”

“Ha, _please_! You should see how he is at parties. Merlin, half the cake disappears in the first hour,” James laughed in Remus’ direction, ruffling the shorter boy’s hair like that immature boy he was.

_Be quieter, please? Please?_

“Guys, leave him alone!” Riona chided, being a Good Samaritan for once in her life and sticking up for the shorter boy obsessing over his food. “He likes cake, so what? There’s no need to make a big deal about it. And cake aside, we can all try acting like him anyway. At least that would make all of us seem a _smidge_ more mature.”

“That goes for you too, Riona,” Eszter noted, earning a perfectly offended scoff from the redhead.

Everyone kept eating as if nothing had happened, chatting and laughing. All seemed pretty well, and as the evening drew to a close, Eszter took her chance and left to go back to her dormitory.

“Phony little skank thinks she’s better than everyone else.”

“Asshole.”

“ _Puta_.”

“She’s a bloody iceberg, am I right?”

“What a waste of space.”

“If it weren’t for her lot, we wouldn’t have all the restrictions choking up our lives. When will someone step up to prune the tree?”

“Why does she even exist?”

“No one asked you to come to Hogwarts, go back to whatever hell you came from!”

The insults flew in and out of her ears daily, but Eszter was pretty used to them by now. It wasn’t her fault that Dániel Szilágyi and Katalin Grindelwald had fallen in love, gotten married, and ended up having her. She existed, and she supposed that her classmates would have been fine with that, but there was the ah, _problem_ with her last name. 

And obviously, her fellow Hogwartians hated her for her personality.

Of course, being a questioning, cheeky upstart or a cold, sarcastic human iceberg wasn’t great, but it made her impervious to bullying, made her feel safer and shielded from her classmates’ and teachers’ words behind her back. After all of the things she had heard being said about her, being nice was out of the question entirely. 

_But despite all of this, I know that this world can still be beautiful._

Eszter often thought about that, this mysterious factor of ‘ _beautiful_ ’. That word could be molded and shaped to anyone’s whims, and even translated into thousands of pretty words, like the French ‘ _belle_ ’, the Latin ‘ _pulchra_ ‘, or even the familiar, Hungarian ‘ _gyönyörű_ ’.

On the maternal side of her family, ‘beauty’ meant purity. Perfection. To be flawlessly gorgeous, like her mother with the rich, caramel-colored hair flowing from her head and that taunting, magnetic smile that had men growling jealously at her father, also known as the man who’d singlehandedly married the breathtaking lady dominating their fantasies.

On the other hand, according to her father, ‘ _beautiful_ ’ was something absolutely, amazingly different in a good way. Unique. To be a shining sun in a world full of clouds.

“Kind of like your _anya_.” He would joke, getting an ‘offended’ groan from her mother and a laugh from himself.

The word kept running circles through her head, making Eszter lose the knowledge of where she was going and why as she stepped, walked, jogged, then _ran_ away from everything and everyone who judged her, insulted her, hurt her pride in any way possible, forced her to put up a cold façade and never act nice anymore, and here she was in an open field of flowers just outside the school.

Now the word could finally escape from her mouth as she took everything in. Eszter opened her mouth to spit it out, to finally let it loose until suddenly—

“It really is _beautiful_ , am I right?”

The word was said for her by an unexpected figure. Sirius Black, of all people, was sitting next to her, watching the thousands upon thousands of stars decorating the sky, the soft, perfect blades of grass beneath their feet, the brilliantly colored flowers all around her in all shapes and sizes that were making their own little marks on the field.

_This is…beauty?_

For once in her life, Eszter didn’t contradict a Marauder, nor did she notice how everyone else—Riona, Peter, Remus, and James—ended up standing next to her, awed and charmed by the landscape in front of them that seemed to have come straight from a fairy tale. She didn’t complain about how they were too tightly packed together, how the air was much too cold, or about how Riona was just four inches away from her. It was all so serene, such a nice change from the unnatural stacks upon stacks of books, paper, lessons, and homework.

It was _peaceful_.

It was _fantastic_.

It was _shining_.

It was _vibrant_.

It was…

“ _Beautiful_.” Eszter breathed, her voice creating a little puff of white smoke in the cold atmosphere. “This is so _beautiful_.”

Everyone smiled while Eszter glued her eyes to the starry, gorgeous sky, memorizing the view and hoping to carve this, this beautiful, _beautiful_ memory into her mind for as long as she could.


	8. Birthday Surprise

**Budapest, Hungary**

**December 31, 1974**

The clock read 10:51 PM, but Eszter’s mind refused to let her rest comfortably in her bed. Fourteen years ago, she was born on this cold, wintry day, and now here she stood—or rather, lay—alive and well. In thirty-four minutes she would officially be fifteen.

But the best part about this night wasn’t really her birthday; it was the fact that she was in Budapest.

_She was finally home._

_Home_ meant trading in the views of her dormitory and school for the familiar sights of Budapest’s fifth district—a place she’d lived in her entire life. _Home_ meant destroying that glacial, protective façade of hers. Home meant that those she knew here would properly roll the ‘ _r_ ’ at the end of her name and speak a language she could comprehend far more than English. _Home_ meant ditching her overly stiff uniform for much more clothing that she was actually used to. _Home_ meant replacing the musky, unpleasant scent of potions with the familiar, more comforting smells and odors of Budapest.

Home was the opposite of Hogwarts; familiar, a tad more comforting, and _safer._

But at the same time, _home_ meant going back to a web of restrictions. _Home_ meant pretending to be a citizen that hadn’t put a toe out of the country—or worse, outside the Iron Curtain—and a law-abiding, loyal little socialist in public. _Home_ meant living with limited conversation topics, censored books, and the ever-present dread of anyone besides family and the Hungarian Ministry of Magic having the slightest notion of her being schooled in the West.

After a few moments, bored of just lying there and doing nothing but trying to get some rest, Eszter got up and went over to the door of her room. Her mother was long asleep, and the apartment was completely silent. After quietly pushing open her door, Eszter tiptoed towards the kitchen table, where a neat stack of books and papers sat, undisturbed since that afternoon.

These books had been brought back from Hogwarts, containing long portions of homework due on the day she came back from break. Sadly enough, she wasn’t even finished with three of the five books and the break ended in less than two weeks. For that, she blamed the problematic couple upstairs yelling at each other for three days straight, with the wife—what was her name again? _Ilona_? _Timea_?—going on about how her husband had been with another woman (if Eszter’s instincts were correct, this was about the sixth time in five years.) Why they hadn’t divorced yet was beyond her knowledge.

Eszter brushed away the dust that had settled onto the front cover of one of the despicably thick volumes and began flipping through its pages until she found the last seven pages she needed to do.

_Lethifolds are creatures with origins of great mystery and skepticism, and very few testimonies exist of victims surviving their attacks. Their method of killing is predominantly suffocation, and it is the way that victims are known to disappear from their beds without a trace. They are usually seen as—_

“Eszti?”

The Ravenclaw perked up at the soft, questioning voice that rang out in the darkness. The endearing nickname that entered Eszter’s ears had been around at home since she was a child, and there was only one person out of two in the entire universe who used the nickname. That person was the source of the voice that had piped up near the brunette in the kitchen.

_Her_ anya _, or in English, her mother._

Eszter’s mother was awake, staring at her through the slivers of moonlight that illuminated the kitchen. Katalin Szilágyi, née Grindelwald, had concern written all over her face, and the emotion crinkled her dark, nearly black eyes and made her look a few years older. If a passerby could see Eszter and her mother together, the resemblance would be nearly impossible to see; blonde, perfect Katalin could be a complete stranger to the dark-haired, contrasting teenager she’d given birth to.

“You shouldn’t be up at this hour, it’s your birthday. You need rest, dear, working this late won’t help you at all.” Katalin chided softly, clasping her pale, delicate hands together. 

“ _Anya,_ I need to get this done, or my professors will skin me alive. Didn’t I tell you about McGonagall? Hagrid? Rubinstein?”

Her mother laughed in that soft, angelic way she always did. “Of course you have, I remember those letters. They were so fun to read, especially the notes written in between the lines.”

Both of them laughed. Eszter tended to write some…interesting…things about her teachers as little notes woven into the actual letter, and if any of her teachers ended up reading (more like translating) the predominantly Hungarian observations of them, she would have surely been expelled in a heartbeat.

“Anyway,” Katalin piped up after a minute of laughter, “do you realize what time it is?”

“Mhm,” Eszter replied with a little nod. “We have fifty-nine minutes left until next year, right?”

The blonde woman in front of her glanced at the clock, then turned to her again. “Fifty- _seven_ minutes, dear, not fifty-nine.” Then she smiled at her warmly, “By the way, we have twenty-two minutes until you’re officially fifteen.”

“Oh, right.”

“Eszti, did you forget about your birthday? What else have you already forgotten by now?” Katalin raised a brow, her face morphing into a teasing expression aimed at her daughter.

“No, I was just thinking about other stuff recently, and…I remembered it only three days ago.” Eszter grudgingly admitted, mentally kicking herself for sounding so unhappy about forgetting her _birthday_ , of all things.

Her mother noted her tone and sighed rather loudly . “Eszti, _szívem…_ ” she dragged out the cute pet name that often followed her daughter’s nickname, a sign that she was slightly disappointed. “Is your schoolwork really so much more important than you?”

“ _Anya_ , you know I have to finish Hogwarts well, it’s not like I—” 

“Never mind.” Katalin cut her off quickly with a calming, forgiving look, then she headed past the table and into the kitchen. Soon, she came out with two wrapped packages.

“Well, since you’re actually fifteen in twenty minutes, I’ve decided to give you your presents today instead of tomorrow.” Since her mother had stashed the presents away that afternoon and worked a little later than usual, the original idea was to have Eszter get her gifts on the first day of 1975 instead of her actual birthday. That way, the two could spend more time together than they would have on her birthday.

“Here you go, _szívem_. You can open your gifts now.” The words were said with the warmest smile Eszter had seen that day on her mother’s face. “ _Boldog szülinapot_ , Eszti.”

_Happy birthday to me._

Eszter paused for a small moment, then began to expose the first carefully wrapped gift for her and her mother to see. First, she _smelled_ the gift, then she actually fixed her gaze on it.

It was a small round cake, neatly decorated with strawberries on the top. Eszter’s mother loved to draw and bake whenever she had the time, and she’d evidently combined these creative skills while making this cake. It was covered in homemade white frosting, dusted with fine bits of a crushed chocolate bar. Flowers made of frosting covered the edges of the cake, so the whole dessert looked like a winter garden without the leaves.

“Wow.” Eszter breathed. Katalin handed her a knife with a smile, and Eszter did the implied, cutting the cake to get two pieces; one for her, the other for her mother.

She took a bite of the dessert, feeling the rich, delicious flavor on her tongue.

“ _Anya,_ I love it, thank you so much.” Eszter said with a genuinely content smile. “When did you have the time to make this?”

“As if I’d tell you.” Her mother scoffed, setting down her half-eaten piece of cake, and they both laughed. “Now open your other gift, Eszti.”

Eszter complied with the request, carefully unwrapping the bigger, heavier package. When the paper came off, there was soft cloth covering the present as well, and Eszter gently removed it, revealing the other thing she’d been given for her fifteenth birthday. It was an engraved wooden box, and the fact that this also covered the gift made Eszter a little more anxious to find what she’d been given than she already had been.

The lid of the box came off easily, and Eszter’s gaze fell onto the soft, clearly worn cover of an book. 

“What’s this? Some family heirloom?”

“Something like that,” Katalin replied softly, “It belonged to your grandfather, Eszti. It was his personal guidebook to magic; it’s got loads of spells, life hacks, charms, you name it. I know he would have wanted someone with your talent to have it. _Szívem_ , you are definitely more than ready for this present.”

Eszter’s eyes widened slightly at the mention of her grandfather. If Gellert Grindelwald previously owned her birthday gift, then this guidebook was not an ordinary thing at all. She nodded and actually held the book. It was much lighter than she’d suspected, despite the many pages she could see in the darkness.

Her fingers found the first page of the book, and she prepared to open it, to see another piece of the puzzle that was Gellert Grindelwald, to—

“Kati, are you kidding me? You tell me that today is Eszter’s birthday and don’t even bother to tell me when you’re opening presents? That’s just harsh, _nyuszi_.”

In that moment, Eszter literally forgot how to breathe. She knew that voice all too well, and she already knew who it was by now. Her mother just stood there in shock for a few moments, then turned along with her daughter to face the person leaning on the wall next to the front door. 

“ _APA_?!” Katalin whispered loudly, and Eszter could see that her mother’s eyes were wider than ever. “What are you doing here?! How the literal hell did you—?!”

“I’ll explain everything later,” Gellert Grindelwald laughed, brushing a platinum lock of hair out of eyes as his mismatched gaze rested on Eszter and her mother. “Anyway, Eszti, is there still cake left over? I may be a year over ninety, but I still have the ability to starve. Consider me a little birthday surprise.”

°°°

“Well, Kati, congratulations. Your father just started liking desserts again thanks to you.” Gellert praised Eszter’s mother warmly as he finished his piece of cake. ”Eszti, do you bake?” 

“No,” Eszter replied, “I do most of the eating part.”

“That’s not true, Eszti, we all know that you’re nearly incapable of eating,” Katalin chided, shaking her head, “For once in your life, at least have another slice of cake!”

“But—!”

“Hush up, Eszti, it’s your birthday. _Eat_ ,” Gellert urged, siding with his daughter, to Eszter’s annoyance, shooting her a stern look that made him seem at least thirty years younger. He then turned towards Eszter’s mother. 

“ _Nyuszi_ , go to bed, please,” He calmly requested. “Eszti and I need to catch up. It’s been almost two and a half years since I’ve seen the kid. By the way, how’s Dániel…never mind.”

Her mother gave Gellert a tense nod after the last sentence, then turned and left.

The topic of Eszter’s father remained more or less closed since his death in 1969. Eszter had been nearly ten when it had happened; one moment he’d been standing next to the front door, fresh from a great day at work, the next he was on the ground, hit by a sudden heart attack. Nothing could have possibly been done to save him from that point on, no matter how hard the doctors tried. Not even magic could have let him live.

It had been six years since Dániel Szilágyi’s death, but both Eszter and her mother hadn’t fully recovered.

After that day, Gellert Grindelwald became the closest thing to a father that Eszter had, and even if he was usually holed up in Nurmengard, he tried to contact her and her mother as often as he could, sending verbal messages through Howlers that were charmed not to yell, but to talk normally, asking his guards to magically deliver letters, and in this case, randomly showing up to visit her in person. 

“You’ve definitely grown, Eszti. How tall are you now?” Her grandfather’s voice snapped her out of her memories.

“Over a meter and a half.” Eszter replied with a smile, effectively erasing any trace of previous sadness. “I’m taller than my _anya_ now.”

“Damn, you grow fast. Just like that father of yours, eh?” Gellert laughed, but changed the subject after the Ravenclaw gave him a look that reminded him not to mention her dead parent. “Last time I saw you was through a certain prison’s window. Your _anya_ used a few charms to allow a moving picture of you to fly into my cell, but never mind that. Thank whatever’s up there that Dumbledore was nice and let me out for three hours.”

Eszter almost dropped her cake in shock. “ _Dumbledore_ let you out?” 

“Yes. It took me two and a half months to keep pestering him by asking him constantly.”

“You _begged_ for it?”

“Ah, shut it, you! Usually he won’t even respond to my letters, that rude bastard, but he finally let me come here for three hours and do some things with my family. I hear he has some grandchildren now. Are they in Hogwarts with you?”

Eszter sighed at the mention of Riona’s last name. “Well, turns out I have all _four_ of Dumbledore’s grandchildren in Hogwarts with me right now, and one of them turned out to be in my year. She’s a Gryffindor, obviously.”

“Oh?” Her grandfather perked up. “What are they like?”

“The oldest one’s Alia. She’s in her sixth year here and the one with the most brains out of the four. She doesn’t really annoy anyone, thank Merlin. Next one is Kendra, she’s a fifth year Hufflepuff prefect. All she’s been so far from my experience is a popular klutz who’s literally obsessed with any food she can see. Then we have Riona, she’s, excuse my language, a bitch with too much temper and not enough sense. She’s one of the Beaters of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. At least her twin—Jack— is a million times better than her.”

Gellert was silent for a moment, then he laughed. “Oh my, Eszti, you and Riona are so much like me and Albus. When we were teens he was such an, how do I put this nicely…an _ass_. But definitely not as much of a pain as me.”

“As if anyone can compete with _you_ in being a pain.” 

“Oh, how you _wound_ me, _szívem_!” Her grandfather pretended to be terribly hurt, putting a hand to his heart with a dramatic flourish.

“You know I’m right,” Eszter deadpanned, trying in vain to conceal a smirk.

“Careful, Eszti, that mouth of yours will definitely get you in trouble one day or another,” Gellert wheezed.

“Believe me, it already has.”

“You still can’t keep your trap shut, hm? Merlin, who knows what’ll happen to you because of that, _szívem_?” Her grandfather asked, then the real catching up began.

Eszter and Gellert Grindelwald, the most infamous, nefarious wizard currently known to the wizarding world, caught up on life for the next hour. They chatted, they laughed, they teased each other mercilessly like cats and dogs, and ate nearly half of Eszter’s birthday cake at Gellert’s insistence. Then the time came for the visitor, also known as the birthday surprise, to leave.

“Eszti, you’ve matured so much. Just a decade ago you were five and drawing me a horribly messy card, no offense. Do me a favor and read my book while I’m holed up in Nurmengard. It’ll help you a lot with school and other things, I’m sure.” Gellert sighed with a smile as he prepared to leave.

“Of course I will. This is the best present I’ve ever gotten, to be honest,” Eszter admitted with a laugh.

“Obviously, since it’s from _yours truly,_ ” Her grandfather replied, “Now I must go. Keep loving and respecting your _anya_ for me, promise?”

“Promise.”

“ _Boldog szülinapot_.” In a flash, just like that, he disappeared.

_Happy birthday, I suppose._

The words were so right; it really was a happy birthday for Eszter, and seeing some of her family all together in person for just a few hours made it the happiest birthday of her entire life.

_Viszlát, nagypapa._

_Bye, grandpa._

_Please._

_Come._

_Back_.


	9. Holiday Snacks

**Pembrokeshire, Wales, England**

**January 3, 1975**

“Leonor, _please_ , have another helping.” Charlotte Dumbledore, the eighty-four year old grandmother of the Dumbledore children, offered as her daughter-in-law lay against the couch, thoroughly full.

“I’ll have another!” Kendra squealed, not even the least bit full as she took her fifth bowl of salad. Grandma laughed.

Everyone else in Riona Dumbledore’s family was either lying somewhere or complaining about their aching stomachs. Ever since Riona, Alia, Jack, and Kendra’s got home, the family was fed delicious, insanely filling cuisine that left most of them wishing that there would be a famine in the next few seconds, and unsurprisingly, everyone in the Dumbledore household had gained at least a kilogram thanks to her food.

According to Grandma, these enormous servings were holiday ‘ _snacks_ ’.

According to everyone else, the food was an easy way to have a day-long siesta and at least six trips to the bathroom two hours after their meal.

“Try this!” Grandma had enthusiastically presented a plate of fresh Caesar salad to the family half an hour ago, and the mouthwatering dish had easily convinced them to eat every vegetable the meal had.

“Have a bite of that!” Grandma had offered a bowl of soup two minutes later.

“And this!”

“Oh, and that!”

“Please eat this!”

Leonor temporarily woke up from her current state. “Charlotte, I can’t eat another bite…” The door suddenly swung open as Leonor’s mother and the esteemed, Sicilian _nonna_ of the family, Elena Venturi, sashayed in on her strong, seventy-nine year old legs. 

“Charlotte, what is going on? Why is everyone passed out—EH?! LEONOR RUSULIA VENTURI, _MIA_ _PICCOLA_ , WHAT IN THE NAME OF _ALL_ _THAT IS HOLY_ HAPPENED TO YOU?!”

Nonna rushed to her daughter’s side, whispering worriedly in Italian and some Sicilian as Leonor lethargically replied, barely even making a move from her spot against the couch. Nonna sighed, then cast a piercing, chocolate brown gaze at her sister-in-law, who was busy smiling and giggling over Kendra’s salad eating spree.

“This is _your_ doing, Charlotte,” Nonna said angrily after a moment of silence, turning around completely to face the only other elderly woman in the kitchen.

“They were hungry, Elena, I couldn’t just leave the poor darlings alone to starve! I believe you would do the same, wouldn’t you?” Grandma argued with a pitiful look in her eyes.

“At least my meals actually send them to bed, and _not_ onto the chairs and dirty floor,” Nonna retorted with a shake of her head. There was a moment of silence between the two grandmothers as they took in the fact that everyone else was in urgent need of a decent rest and one hell of a workout because the sheer amount of food offered by Grandma had given everyone at _least_ another four pounds. Hell, maybe even _five_..

“ _Mio Dio_ ,” Nonna breathed after some time, her face becoming thirty shades paler at the sight of everyone flopped onto or against the nearest items to them, “Even Nathaniel is out cold. Kendra, _topolina_ , are you still eating?”

“Yes, but I’m done now!” Kendra giggled, finishing her food. “This tasted great, Grandma! Nonna, you should have had some food too! It was amazing!”

Nonna sighed and helped everyone get up from where they lay. Alia was already asleep in an armchair, so there was no point in waking her. Jack was passed out by his chair at the dining table, clutching his stomach, while Leonor was helped into a sitting position on the couch along with her very full husband who was currently stuck in a food coma, just like everyone else minus Kendra, Nonna, and Grandma. Fawkes, who was staying at the Dumbledore residence instead of Hogwarts at the moment, also seemed bloated and dazed from his delightful, filling lunch, dozing on his perch on the back of Alia’s armchair in a food-induced siesta.

Riona got up by herself, clutching her head in slight agony.

“I’m not eating a single _crumb_ until the holidays end,” She groaned, flopping into a chair.

“You said those exact same words last year,” Alia croaked from her place on the armchair with a barely visible smirk that gave her an unwanted reminder of Eszter, “Not impressed.”

Nonna faced her sister-in-law again with a disappointed look. “These poor souls are going to sleep for the next day or so thanks to your little _luncheon_. Do you realize how much homework the children have left to do, Charlotte?”

“I’m well aware, and like I said, they were hungry, you child-starving beast,” Grandma shot back with a grin.

“Who are you calling a beast, you crazy _hag_?”

“ _I’m_ calling you one, you snooty, withered old _crone._ ”

“Don’t you start this again, _Charlotte Angelica Dumbledore_.”

“As if you can stop me, _Elena Margherita Venturi_.”

The grandmothers eventually shut up after a minute or two of name-calling, admonishing, and outright chastising. The two had a tendency to playfully bicker with each other whenever possible ever since Leonor and Nate’s wedding day. Grandma and Nonna were so very, very different, and those differences somehow managed to make them about as close as sisters, even if they were only related thanks to their children's marriage.

Riona had been watching the entire thing unfold since Nonna and Grandma had started their little fight. It was so typical of Grandma to offend someone directly or from a distance. When she and Jack performed a little violin concert at the age of eight in front their family, back when they’d been a little musically inclined, everyone had clapped vivaciously except for a blank-faced Grandma.

“Mum, why aren’t you clapping?” Her father had asked during dinner that same day.

“I only clap if it’s _good_ , Nathaniel dear. I _certainly_ hope that music won’t be their livelihood,” Grandma insisted bluntly. Everyone had laughed hard enough to fall out of their chairs, and Riona and Jack were depressed and very glum for the rest of the day after realizing that she hadn’t been joking.

Nonna and Grandma pivoted to face everyone else as they woke up from their respective food comas. Leonor groaned in agony, clutching her stomach as Nate led her to their bedroom, placing a supportive arm around her shoulders. Alia made a beeline to the nearest bathroom, nearly sending Kendra out of her seat as she sprinted by with incredibly renewed speed. Jack finally sat up.

“Grandma,” He began softly, “Are you sure this much food was _less_ than enough?”

“Are you sure that your _grades_ are _more_ than enough?” Grandma shot back. “I’d say ‘yes’ to both of our questions.”

Nonna laughed. “Charlotte, don’t be so crude to the children. At least you didn’t say that to Riona: God knows what she would have replied with that the temper of yours she’s got.”

Charlotte cast a glance at Riona. “No, the temper is yours and Leonor’s, I’m afraid. The hair’s my husband’s, the eyes are mine. All of those pesky freckles are Nate’s, obviously. She got too much from my side of the gene pool, Elena.”

“Alia’s the direct opposite.” Nonna remarked. “Anyway, I’m in charge of dinner later.”

Charlotte faced her with a very annoyed expression. “Excuse me? I decree that I’m much more qualified _and_ entitled to—!”

“Can you make _gnocchi_?” Nonna deadpanned, arching her greying brows coyly.

“Absolutely not, but I—!”

“What about _lobster bisque_? _Mille-feuille_? Homemade _tiramisu_?”

Grandma sighed reluctantly. “Alright, alright, you win.”

“That’s exactly what I thought,” Nonna replied with a smirk.

“Shut it, you entitled _bat_. You culinary school graduates are all too pompous about your skills and the other pish-posh that you learned. You see, back in _my_ days…”

Nonna, Kendra, and Jack quickly left the room with identical eye rolls and groans.

Grandma turned to Riona with a grin. “Those three always find it annoying when I tell my stories, don’t you agree? I wonder why they’re so bloody glued to your Nonna’s tales. Maybe because they involve more adventure? A lot more spice? Free spirit? More food?”

Riona laughed, returning the smile. “Yes, no, maybe so! But you know we all love you as much as Nonna!”

Grandma blushed with a satisfied _‘Oh, how nice of you,’_ as a response. She crossed the room towards the kitchen table and began putting away the dishes, humming to herself as she worked. She turned to Riona again.

“You run along now, Ronnie. I’m sure that Nonna has a great new adventure to talk about. Maybe when you’re older, you will have even more stories to tell your family. My, my, you four little idiots grew up so fast. It’s as if only _yesterday_ Alia learned how to walk, and just a few hours ago your brother said his first word,” Nostalgia filled Grandma’s tone as she spaced out, giving Riona the cue to leave.

As Riona left the house to walk around in the yard, she realized that Grandma had been right. So many years had flashed by in what seemed like days, and now that she was nearly fifteen, she could remember many, many stories in need of telling. Nostalgia had clearly taken hold of her since these types of thoughts were now rushing into her head like a flood.

But for now, she would stow these little tales away in her mind. Until she graduated from Hogwarts, stories and fun times in a family of her own would have to wait.

The tales could be told in a million years, and as long as there was still a tomorrow, they could burst into the world when their time to shine was given. 

As long as there were still two days left of the holidays, Riona could sit down and finish her last set of homework, because if Professor Levine’s assigned papers weren’t finished, she doubted that there would ever be another tomorrow in her life.


	10. The Reason

**January 13, 1975**

The second week of the second term started with an unusually beautiful morning. The snow from the previous afternoon had seeming vanished from the castle grounds, and instead, the sun shone brightly and somewhat warmed the cold air that had been freezing every bit of nature and turning the noses of anyone who’d been walking outside for less than a minute a bright, feverish red. But now it was evening, and the unusual sun would be gone soon.

Riona, James, and Remus were walking outside after classes, trying to savor whatever sun was left for them to observe.

”Wow, finally,” James sighed contentedly, running a hand through his particularly messy hair, “We actually get something warm in _January_ , of all months. Remus, mate, can you believe it?”

Remus laughed at that from his place beside Riona, nodding agreeably. “Yeah, it’s been a while since we saw something like this in the winter. Riona, you were in the countryside over the holidays, did you see anything?”

“No,” Riona said with a shake of her head, “Anyway, you guys need any more help with homework?”

The boys shook their heads. During the last tutoring session, she and Eszter had practically carved the lesson into everyone’s—including their own—heads, and after that, Riona wasn’t sure if she or everyone else in their tutoring group be able to forget the basic foundation of Charms anytime soon.

She shivered as the rapidly cooling breeze brushed past her. Riona longed for summer, for the warm, pleasant winds and the seemingly endless freedom that came with the happy, beautiful season. She thought of richly colored flowers, fresh fruits, and all of the loveliness and cheer brought by the wonderful season.

Riona’s nostalgia practically vanished at the sound of a familiar, low voice.

“Remus, you left your quill in the tutoring room, _again_ ,” Eszter remarked with an impassive glance at her.

Riona didn’t even bother to look in Remus’ direction as the brunette handed him his lost quill. When she switched her mind back to seasons, Eszter reminded Riona of winter. Her glacial eyes froze everything they looked at, figuratively, and those long, pale fingers of hers were unnaturally cold, giving Riona the thought of replacing every finger on Eszter’s hands with an icicle, since each appendage oddly resembled one. The worst part about her was the cold, bitter winter air that bit and sliced everything around it in the form of words and sentences that leaked from her mouth. In this person, warmth was seemingly nonexistent, or had been snuffed out by something to the point of no return.

“Erm, hello? Earth to Riona??”

She snapped out of her thoughts to look at James, who was staring at her quizzically. “What? Sorry, I just spaced out there…”

“We can tell,” Remus replied with a wobbly smile and a nod, and she came to notice that they were by the Quidditch pitch and Eszterházy wasn’t gone. “James and I have been meaning to ask you this for a while now. It’s about you and Grindelwald.”

Riona sighed, feeling heart drop into her shoes as she realized the topic at hand. “Well, why didn’t you just ask _her_? Maybe she’ll answer your question.”

“Because first of all, we don’t want to die,” James piped up again, “and second of all, you’re easier to talk to. So anyway, we know that thirty years ago, your grandfathers had this duel and whatever, but why do you two hate each other?”

_Yeah, Riona, why?_ A voice in her head nagged at her as she prepared to answer a question she refused to have anything to do with for the past two years. She took a deep breath and began to speak.

“Alright, you asked, here’s the reason.”

°°°

**March 14, 1973**

_“TARANTALLEGRA!”_

BLAM _!_

_Riona fired the first spell almost immediately, shooting it at Eszter and releasing her pent up excitement. Finally, she could actually launch an object, or a spell, at the other girl; if she beat this ice-cold bitch, none of her sarcastic and passive remarks would make her feel a spike of anger. If she beat her, she could repeat history; a Dumbledore beating a Grindelwald for the second time since 1945._

_That being said, there was a big ‘_ if _’ that kept replaying incessantly in her mind._

_To Riona’s annoyance, her opponent, left handed, unfortunately for her, and strangely gifted at dueling, quickly countered her attack with a simple ‘Finite Incantatem’ and a sharp flick of her wrist. There was no denying that Eszter Grindelwald was pretty damn good, no, a master when it came to spells and magic, but at least Riona had the power to exhaust her by throwing many spells in succession at her._

_“Are you tired, Dumbledore_ _?” Eszter asked, her bored expression twisting into a dangerously excited one that only came up during dueling as her lips formed into a smirk, “Is that really_ all _you’re capable of? Truly, I expected better, but my mistake, I suppose._ _”_

_“Keep the chatter to a minimum, Miss Grindelwald!” Professor Fray yelled from her place at her desk, observing the duel._

_“Fine, you could have said that earlier,”_ _Eszter muttered irritatedly under her breath, and shot a well-aimed disarming spell so quickly that it nearly hit Riona in the face before she could even react._

_Among the other students watching the duel, there was heated betting, debating, and arguing about who would win._

_“It’s settled, Yeats. If I win, I get fifteen Galleons, if you can even get_ that _much out of your savings.”_

_“COME ON, DUMBLEDORE, MAKE GRYFFINDOR PROUD!”_

_“Crush her into the ground, Eszter!”_

_“Trust me, that redhead won’t win.”_

_“2-4-6-8, WHO DO WE APPRECIATE?_ NONE OF THEM _, BECAUSE ALL OF YOU KNOW THAT I’LL MURDER THEM BOTH IN A DUEL IF I GOT THE CHANCE!”_

 _“You wouldn’t last a minute against either of them, Vivienne. Sorry, but you_ suck _at spells.”_

_“If Dumbledore wins, every Ravenclaw in this class will be the Gryffindors’ personal servants for the next week!”_

_“As if we’ll ever let you do that,_ moron _!”_

_“ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP AND WATCH!”_

_Meanwhile, the fight continued. Eszter seemed too relaxed about the whole situation, dodging spells gracefully and never sparing a moment to argue with her opponent. Riona’s anger grew with every frustratingly passive comment, easy defense and offense on Eszter’s part, and narrowly missed spell, and every hex she shot at the girl in front of her was even stronger than the last, fueled by pure frustration._

_Realizing that she’d soon be out of control, Riona began to count down from 10._

10, 9…

_“You aren’t a first year, Dumbledore, do me a favor and work up some aim.”_

8\. 7, 6…

_Silence, then…_

5, 4, 3, 2…

_“Ah, Dumbledore, you poor thing, you’re losing control. As much fun as this is, I think we both know that your efforts are ever enough at this point. Too bad.”_

Never enough.

Never enough.

_The words echoed for what seemed like an eternity in Riona’s mind until her emotions took over. She’d had enough, and now her mouth let loose the bubbling frustration and indignation that had been boiling inside of her for the past five minutes._

_If Eszter’s intent had been to use Riona’s emotions and her own quiet taunts to make her let loose and lose the duel, her plan was about to backfire._

_“_ SHUT UP _!” Riona screamed, making a few heads with scared expressions turn in her direction. “Shut up, shut up,_ SHUT THE HELL UP _!” Her spells became even stronger than before, and Eszter’s smirk became significantly smaller as she worked harder to deflect and avoid the spells that were now based solely on emotions and were now practically sizzling with the anger that had mixed with them._

_Emotions, especially rage, could make spells stronger and a lot more destructive if the wizard started displaying these feelings as they performed magic. If the wizard lost control, these spells could become murder weapons._

_In Riona’s case, they became small, relatively fiery bombs, practically exploding as they whipped past her opponent, who wasn’t smirking anymore._

_“Glacius!”_

_Riona opened her eyes to reality as she realized that she was frozen now, quite literally. A mountain of ice, cold and strong, covered the entire bottom half of her body, and Eszter stared worriedly at her opponent from where she was standing ahead with her wand pointed at her. Riona noticed that her own wand was also frozen, so she couldn’t cast spells any longer._

_“Look, Dumbledore, I’m sorry. Please just…calm down Professor, I think we should stop the duel. I don’t think Riona’s ready to finish it.” Eszter’s tone came out oddly regretful and concerned, and she turned towards an equally worried Professor Fray._

_“Just like your grandfather wasn’t ready when he murdered Ariana Dumbledore..” Riona snapped quietly, still having a hard time letting go of her fading rage._

_She knew she said the wrong thing when Eszter heard that, stopped, and whipped around quickly enough to cause her own neck to audibly let out a cracking noise. Her eyes were now daggers of cold blue eyes that were stabbing holes into Riona’s body, glaring at her viciously._

_Riona knew how many stray comments and rumors about Eszter and her grandfather existed around school. She knew that Eszter was, more than obviously, not at all deaf and that words, especially cruel ones, had a habit of being remembered._

_Her sentence had been the straw that broke the camel’s back._

_Eszter’s expression was pure poison, blazing with ice blue fire when she locked eyes with Riona, and the appearance of genuine emotions on the Hungarian girl’s face was nothing short of horrifying. Cold sweat began to trickle down the redhead’s back as she heard the clicking noise of Eszter’s boots getting closer and closer to her, and Riona’s face went from tomato red to paper white._

_Riona expected a torrent of rage, maybe even something like a tantrum from the most composed, unnerved student she knew. At least it would break the silence that now completely occupied the classroom._

_But what she didn’t anticipate was a sharp, merciless, and incredibly painful slap across the face._

_The sound of Eszter’s backhand seemingly traveled around the room in slow motion as every gaze in the room locked onto the person now looming over Riona. Not even Professor Fray, who just sat at her desk, shell shocked, dared to move a muscle in the horrible silence._

_Agony exploded through Riona’s face and now split bottom lip as she looked up at the brunette that was now giving her a look apathetic enough to send shivers down her spine._

_“You still think that my grandfather murdered Ariana?” Eszter’s words were sharpened daggers dipped in salt, causing more and more terrible dread with every syllable. “You bigoted, stupid little_ bitch _. Who do you think you are?”_

_Only then did Riona’s vocal cords remember to start working. “I…I…”_

_“What proof can you possibly have that Gellert Grindelwald killing Dumbledore’s sister, huh? What makes you smart enough to tell me who slaughtered Ariana? Go ahead and tell me._

_Riona didn’t answer, but merely observed her dignity being trampled and punched deeper into the ground._

_“Answer me, you coward!”_

_Eszter’s glacial snarl forced Riona to look back up at her and speak._

_“I…have no…proof…” Riona admitted. Her temper really had gotten the best of her this time, and now, she didn’t know what was worse: paying the price of facing an angry Eszter Grindelwald, supposedly a fate worse than expulsion or detention, or the blatant destruction of her self worth. “I…I’m so—!”_

_“Don’t apologize,” Eszter deadpanned, shooting another blazing, terrifying look at Riona. “Besides, it would be so_ humiliating _for you_ _, asking forgiveness from someone like_ me _.”_

_With that, Eszter picked up her wand and left, of all things, not even bothering to free Riona from the ice she was trapped in. The entire class was deafeningly quiet, holding their breath as they watched the brunette leave the classroom with an expression deadly enough to up and kill off every human within a twenty-mile radius. Clearly, Riona had dodged a bullet, because if she’d been alone with Eszter after her accusation, she doubted that she would have made it out without being physically maimed._

_One thing caught her attention, even after Riona’s dignity had been sufficiently destroyed. It seemed like Eszter had muttered one thing before leaving._

“ _We could have been friends_.”

_That one sentence left Riona filled with only one emotion._

_Guilt._

_The next few months after the incident with Eszter flew by too quickly, and they changed so many things._

_Eszter had avoided opportunities to speak with Riona after their duel, and the redhead couldn’t exactly blame her. Avoiding soon turned into the Ravenclaw’s drastic change in relations with Riona._

_She became competitive, as if to wrong the redhead and everyone else who had dared belittle her because of her grandfather’s deeds. Eszter rapidly rose to the top of almost every single one of her classes, and with this newfound power came instant success in social life; the number of friends and acquaintances the Hungarian girl had soared, and more and more people wanted to know the Ravenclaw better._

_This new popularity and success slowly began to affect Riona as well. She couldn’t comprehend it, this sudden rise in power from a_ Grindelwald, _nor could she stand it. Soon, the guilt that the redhead felt turned into envy and competition, and Riona and Eszter quickly became the leading students of their classes who could beat anyone but each other._

_The competition turned into rivalry by the end of the year, and making up for obliterating what could have been a friendship was out of the question. Simple remarks exchanged between the two sides of the rivalry could quickly turn into verbal fights, and if one girl began to climb higher than the other, more competition would ensue._

_Eszter Grindelwald and Riona Dumbledore grew to despise each other, waiting for the day that one of them would give up their place at the head of the class and admit that the other was better and undeserving of disrespect._

_Like their grandfathers before them, both girls simply destroyed any chance for peace in their enmity, and every year, their rivalry got worse._

_In their second year, it was just competition, a candle steadily growing larger and larger._

_Third year was a bonfire quickly turning into a much bigger blaze._

_Fourth year had become a nearly uncontrollable wildfire, and neither side of those flames of enmity knew when that blaze would transform into a hellish, unstoppable inferno that would violently shatter both of them in the end._

_°°°_

**I’m the one who broke the camel’s back. I’m the one who could have had another friend. I’m the one should have known that angering her would have hurt us both. I’m the one who didn’t give enough of a damn to care until she snapped.**

The thoughts filled Riona’s mind in a split second as she left James and Remus, now confused and blank-faced, outside as the sun faded away and made way for the stars.

“You…you should apologize!” Remus stammered as the redhead left him alone with James.

_If only I could do that without getting anyone hurt._


	11. The Ravenclaws’ Wrath

**February 9, 1975**

Every house of Hogwarts valued a certain thing among its members. For example, the Slytherins were maniacs about cleanliness, even more than the Ravenclaws. Anyone in the house with an unmade bed or even a hair out of place was immediately lectured and/or punished by the neater than normal prefects.

Gryffindors had their love of performing well in sports, and the Hufflepuffs flaunted their passion of baking, but the hearts of the Ravenclaws were firmly rooted in one thing; _wits_.

Every time an exam was taken, the prefects collected the scores and posted large, extremely visible lists in the common room. The lists, seven in number, ranked the students in order of highest score to lowest. Every year had its own list, and the students placing in the top three in their year for the exam got to work together to either throw a congratulatory get-together for the whole house or, less likely than usual, come up with a punishment specifically designed for the last three members of their respective lists.

As the usual crowds gathered around those lists, Eszter stepped in to see her score on the Potions exam. The top spot was dominated by Henry Fournier, and she had apparently taken the second spot. It wasn’t much of a blow to her, but it was still the first time she’d placed second to Henry, who usually was a place or two _behind_ her.

It wasn’t like she was surprised; after spending most of her time flipping through her grandfather’s book for the past two months, her grades had been bound to slip just a tad.

“Congratulations,” She remarked as the blonde boy in first place walked over and smiled triumphantly when he saw the list.

“Well, what do you know, Grindelwald? I finally got ahead of you for once in my life,” He laughed, flashing a grin at her, “Now I don’t have to cope with the fact that I’m an academic _disgrace_ compared to you.”

“Yes, yes, go on with the _rain_ of compliments you’ve obviously stowed away _just for me,”_ Eszter replied sarcastically and returned his smile for the sake of formality. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a first year, clearly one of the students with a less-than-average score, complaining to his friends.

“They give us too much homework and never enough time to study!” The boy groaned, slamming his fist into a nearby table. Eszter took the moment to face the loud child.

“‘Too much homework’?” She repeated the phrase with a quizzical expression on her face. “Compared to what I had in primary school, this is practically _child’s play._ ” After she released the words, Eszter felt a chill run down her spine as she remembered the plethora of Hungarian grammar rules that had been practically nailed into her brain thanks to her earlier, stricter education.

Eszter then retreated to the table where the prefects usually gathered. Being the youngest prefect in Ravenclaw and possibly in the entire school’s history didn’t stop her from keeping a position of power among her peers. Over the last semester, she’d been gaining more than enough respect, and some students thought that in a year or two, she’d become Head Girl of Ravenclaw.

But since she was the granddaughter of the Headmaster’s worst enemy, that was very unlikely.

“Hi, Grindelwald!” Aoife Cunningham, a sixth-year prefect, greeted her warmly. She reminded her of Isolt in a way; Aoife was always cheery and kindly in every situation, just like the Slytherin student. “Congrats on getting second on the exam. Bloody hell, it was _hard_!”

“‘Hard’?! That test was a _disaster_!” A sassy second-year girl huffed, clearly angry about her results. “None of us in my year got a perfect score.” 

“Maybe it’s because all you and your little entourage of friends do is gossip about your crush on Gilles Fontaine and doodle all over your books? You’re in Ravenclaw, for the love of Merlin. The Sorting Hat placed you in here because you’re supposed to be _creative, witty, and actually functioning_. Based on your last five scores, I’m guessing that you’ve been trying to prove it wrong,” Eszter gave the now red-faced girl a condescending side glance as she opened a textbook and began doing homework with the other prefects.

A whisper that came from one of the second year’s friends reached her ears. “Merlin, that girl’s a _bitch_.” Eszter barely even looked at the girl as she rolled her eyes. 

“Mhm, keep rolling your eyes, maybe you’ll find a _brain_ back there,” Eszter plainly responded to the insult without even turning to face the girl, and the prefects laughed.

°°°

As the day drew to a close, Eszter, Henry, and the other top scorers of her house were discussing suitable punishments for the bottom part of the exam score food chain in the courtyard.

“We could make them eat with their hands tied together for a whole _day_ …”

“Devon, that is _inhumane_!”

“No, no, no! We can revoke their right to free time for a week!”

“You’re being too soft, Anna, _two weeks.”_

“What about cleaning the Great Hall manually for three days?”

“Can we toss them into the Forbidden Forest for one night—?”

“ _NO_!”

“Maybe we could make them clean the entire Quidditch Pitch manually. That should do the trick.”

Eszter sighed in exasperation and stood up, clearing her throat, “All of these are, erm…lovely suggestions, but they aren’t really enough. We need something that can either force or even scare them into studying more.”

“Scaring people? Oh come on, Grindelwald, you didn’t consult us before planning a prank? That’s a new low even for _you_.”

Sirius Black, of all people, sauntered out of the bushes with his entourage of the other Marauders. He was smirking devilishly, and he held a blue notebook in his hands. 

Eszter and the others turned to face him, completely confused. The Marauders, also known as the unchallenged _lords_ of Hogwarts shenanigans, were here to help them? Some of the Ravenclaws looked like they were about to drop to their knees and sing the boys’ praises loud enough for the entire school to hear, while others looked flat-out annoyed.

“I assume you heard everything,” Eszter stated. “Anyway, what’s in the notebook, Sirius?”

Sirius cackled like an evil witch about to carry out her grandest plan. “Pranks, jokes, calamities, catastrophes, you name it! There’s no _way_ you can pull a prank off without our special book!”

Eszter rolled her eyes at the boy’s quickly inflating ego. “So, what do you propose we do?”

Sirius cackled yet again, this time more witchy than ever. “You’ll see, now be my guests and follow us!”

°°°

At first, the slackers had been laughing and nonchalantly messing around outside in the evening.

Then the screeching started as firecrackers in the shapes of dragons and ferocious magical creatures flew towards them, sizzling and crackling menacingly. The boys’ cries were at least two octaves higher than their natural vocal range, so most of them sounded like squealing little girls. All of the Marauders were laughing maniacally, and the top scorers of Ravenclaw wore identical smirks.

Each creature left a trail of something along the lines of ‘Practice and succeed or we shalt destroy you all’ or some shit, and after this episode, all of the nonchalant failing students would be working like an army was after them thanks to the threat of being eaten by those horrible beasts.

Such was the strength of the Ravenclaws’ wrath against anyone in their house who dared to end up below their standards.

Thanks to extensive planning and timing by the Ravenclaws and prank research done by the Marauders, the punishment of terrifying creatures meant to scare the slackers into working turned out quite well.

“Nice work!” Henry guffawed, throwing an arm around Remus’ shoulders. “You and your friends should help us punish more often, seriously. That was bloody amazing!”

“I know!” James laughed from his hiding spot in the bushes, concealing himself from the currently terrified, screaming slackers that were running around the fields.

Eszter let a small, evil little smile creep onto her face. This had been such a worthwhile experience, especially when she saw the look on that annoying second year’s face as a ‘chimera’ sprinted toward her.

_Karma’s a bitch, huh, you little prat?_

Peter gave her a slightly nervous look. “Um…Eszter…you look like you’re about t-to kill someone…”

She turned to face the scrawny boy talking to her, erasing her murderous expression and replacing it with a calm mask. “Ah, I see. Go tell your friends that you did a _lovely_ job.”

Sirius glanced at her with a grin. “Well, what do you know? You seem a bit like an evil villain now! Are you going into the, erm, _family business_?”

Eszter looked him dead in the eye and gave him a deadpan, annoyed look.

“Ah, sorry, wrong time?”

She responded with a toxic death stare straight from the depths of hell.

“Right then, never mind.”

As the top scorers yawned and stretched, following Eszter back inside as she stopped glaring and left, she heard the Marauders from the back of the procession whispering rather loudly.

“Finally, we got a decent opportunity to pull a prank _without_ the threat of being expelled!”

“Y-Yeah, and this time everything worked out.” 

“Of course it did. With those Ravenclaw brains and our awesome plan book, what could have gone wrong?” 

“Everything, but if someone like _Grindelwald_ approves of a stunt like that, we’ll be off without a hitch in _any_ situation!”

From the front of the procession of students, Eszter did something that was usually seen once in a blue moon on her composed, tranquil face.

_She genuinely smiled._

To the people who saw the look on her face, it was a sign that there really were emotions behind the formal, cold mask of Eszter Grindelwald.


	12. Grindelwald vs. The Pixies

**February 7, 1975**

Eszter read the book she’d gotten for her birthday in the tutoring room, taking extreme care to not accidentally rip a page. Her grandfather’s personal spell book was quite a wonderful read, even the fun little footnotes, strange doodles, and information here and there were taken in by Eszter’s evidently hungry brain.

The atmosphere was peaceful and comfortable until she heard a small squeaking noise.

Then another.

Followed by another.

Eszter slowly closed the book and turned towards the window. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary in the fields outside of the tutoring room, and the area she was in was undisturbed and quiet. She shrugged and flipped to the page she’d been on.

**Incendio** : _one of the worst spells in existence. One wrong flick and it can become any other jinx. (Thanks to this little problem, one time I accidentally cast Wingardium Leviosa my old oven. It took four days to fix my poor ceiling.) Righties tend to have a better chance at performing the spell right, historically. (Sorry,_ szívem _, lefties aren’t the greatest at this, so best of luck to you.) Keep your fingers farther from the tip of the wand when casting Incendio unless you want permanent burn scars._

As soon as she finished the paragraph, the squeaking noise came back, but it seemed a lot closer.

Eszter sighed, closed her book again, and turned to face the window.

“This is getting annoying, alright? Whoever’s doing that, please stop, my ears are starting to ring.” She said rather loudly, then felt something land on her shoulder.

The squeaking noise was right next to her ear now, and only then did Eszter realize that the sounds weren’t coming from children, or any person near her or the window.

Those annoying chirping sounds were coming from the bright blue Cornish pixie that was sitting on her shoulders, buzzing and squeaking as seven more pixies flew in through the window, responding to their fellow creature’s calls with their own incredibly shrill, awful, ear-destroying squeaking.

“Mind getting off?” Eszter asked with an annoyed scoff as she reached into her bag for her wand. The pixie next to her head noticed her fingers heading towards the bag. 

Then it pulled her hair. _Hard_.

As the sharp, explosive feeling of her hair being yanked surged through her head, Eszter bit back a cry of pain and snatched her wand, eye twitching rapidly. She gritted her teeth and shot a Freezing Charm at the offender, turning the creature into a tiny iceberg that shattered as it hit the floor.

Two more sharp waves of pain, twice as agonizing as the previous tug on her carefully brushed hair, hit her as two pixies also began yanking her hair hard enough to slam her head into the desk she sat by.

Most of the time, Eszter had the lovely quality of having extreme patience.

She considered this a necessary exception as she ripped away her calm composure and made way for the pissed, uncomfortable demon that she liked to tuck away into the darkest corners of her emotions.

“D... _Damn you_!” She screeched angrily as she fired a few more Freezing Charms with extra spikes in the icebergs to ensure that the pixies experienced very painful deaths. The pixies chirped louder as five more flew in and began biting her in retaliation, pulling her hair harder than ever.

“Get. _Off_. Of. My. _Hair_. You—!” The pained shriek that escaped her mouth was at least three octaves higher than her typical voice. 

Clearly, the various swearing and agonized screaming had done her some good as the door flew open to reveal Remus, Riona, and Sirius, all carrying their tutoring supplies. Since Professor Flitwick had extended their tutoring time, the boys had another two months of lessons, and it wasn’t surprising that they’d walked in on her in the tutoring room, since it was about to be time for studying with them. Peter stood in the doorway, frozen in terror at the sight in front of him.

Eszter narrowed her eyes through her pain as Riona and Sirius burst out laughing at the sight of her. Never in her life had Eszter been more blatantly humiliated because of anything, and she wished that a giant hole would appear under her and swallow her, taking her away from this idiotic situation.

“Observe, my devoted audience, our latest match!” Sirius boomed in the voice of a boxing commentator. “Grindelwald vs. The Pixies, with the latter taking _quite_ a lead in this fight! Who will win?”

“Oi, shut up, Sirius! Oh my god, Eszter, you really need help!” Remus cried, shock evident in his voice as his eyes widened considerably.

“Thank you for noticing!” Eszter snarled through gritted teeth as three more spikes of pain attacked her senses. “Yes, I _actually_ need help! Can you guys please get these— _AH_!—-damned things away from me?”

Riona, through her snickering, faced Eszter with a grin. “Have you never dealt with pixies before? Merlin, what century have you been living in?” 

Eszter’s eye twitched even more intensely, and her current expression earned a scared ‘ _YEEK_!’ from Peter and Remus. “I live in this century, and no, I’ve never dealt with these little bastards before. Can you please hurry up and _help_?” The last sentence came out in a slightly defeated tone, which added to her annoyance.

Riona sighed and, of all things, began whistling a soft, playful little tune. The pixies stopped tormenting Eszter and perked up, entranced by the music coming from the redhead. The creatures abandoned Eszter’s hair as they grouped around Riona, and the Gryffindor girl expertly walked to the window, leading the captivated pixies outside of the room as she closed off the tutoring room from the outside world.

Eszter let out a sigh of relief and rubbed her head. It had been a while since Riona Dumbledore had helped her, and this time, the aid was actually decent. 

“Thank you,” She told Riona, slipping into her normal mask of tranquility. Riona looked at her with raised brows; it had been some time since Eszter had actually thanked her.

“Erm…you’re welcome,” She replied, setting down her tutoring things as she opened her Potions book, “Do you need to go to the hospital wing to check those bites?”

“I’m fine,” Eszter calmly stated as she began working on her papers, “They honestly don’t hurt anymore, the hair pulling was definitely worse than getting bitten.”

Riona sighed, looking at Eszter questioningly, “Pixies don’t bite unless they’re really, really mad or threatened. What did you do?”

“I froze a few of them, but only for self defense—“

“Oh, you didn’t freeze all of them at once, right? They were bound to be pissed,” Riona noted, to Eszter’s chagrin. 

Then it was back to papers, books, lessons, and formalities as tutoring began. Eszter went over to her study group and Riona started working with hers. Other than the occasional jokes, explanations, and questions, nothing broke the room’s quiet and peaceful atmosphere. It seemed like a flock of angry pixies hadn’t just flown in through the window to terrorize a student.

When tutoring was over, everyone got up to leave. Soon, they would go their separate ways; five would go to the Gryffindor common room, while one would head back to the Ravenclaw common room.

It was a calm routine now, even if the tutoring would end in a week or two. 

As Eszter headed to her usual hallway, something landed on her shoulder. 

_PIXIE_ , Eszter’s brain told her, and she raised her hand to smack the terrible creature off her shoulder. She was very close to slapping the thing on her shoulder until she realized that it was a hand, not a bitchy little monster.

“Hey, Grindelwald.” The owner of the hand was Sirius, based on the voice. Eszter turned around to face him, locking eyes with him. Silver met glacial, frosty blue as Eszter took her moment to talk.

“Oh, it’s you,” She noted, “Why’d you follow me all of a sudden? Don’t you have a paper to do for Professor McGonagall?”

“Yeah, I know,” He paused for a moment, “Grindelwald, are you still pissed about that duel you had with Riona two years ago?”

_He knows._

“She took it too far, honestly. Yes, I’m pissed, but not because she’s a Dumbledore. I’m mad because someone like her, a member of a more or less kind, forgiving family, turned out like most of this school and assumed I’m a heartless, two-faced snake who’ll turn out like my grandfather and start another war. Who knows, maybe they’re right.”

Eszter began to do the thing she did best when she talking about the rift between her and Riona; she turned and started walking away.

“Wait up!” Sirius shouted, trying to keep up with her as she began to leave. Eszter didn’t respond.

“God, can you—Grindelwald, are you even listening to me?! _Eszter_ , _wait_!”

The sound of her first name coming from Sirius’ mouth finally made Eszter turn to face him. The boy was staring directly at her, and his hands were curled into tight fists.

“You _aren't heartless_ , Grindelwald,” He spoke kindly, and his words made Eszter almost want to believe him, “I…I didn’t know that someone like you would believe what those assholes say. Look, you may seem closed off and cold as _fuck_ , but you have a heart somewhere, Eszter. I get why you’re mad, but I’ve known you long enough to think that you’re a _pretty decent person_. Piece of advice; don’t let those comments get under your skin. You’re better than that!” 

The only thing that Eszter could do after that outburst was nod. Sirius Black wasn’t an honest, genuinely supportive person most of the time, so his outburst could only indicate one thing.

_He probably meant it._

_Every._

_Single._

_Word._

With that thought in mind, Eszter turned around again and kept walking. Behind her, Sirius gave her a reassuring nod and also continued on his way back to his common room.

_Finally, someone believes that I’m not evil._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello to all my readers out there! I would love to know your opinion on Temporary Truce so far, so comments and feedback are always much appreciated!  
> Signing off,  
> -Irony


	13. A Marauder Can Help?

**February 18, 1975**

“Are you _kidding_ me?!”

Emerson’s frustrated shout made everyone on the Gryffindor Quidditch team literally jump up with surprise. Clearly, their Keeper was in a mood and pacing around the common room, and that usually didn’t mean anything good. Currently, Emerson was talking to a clearly terrified Lily Evans, who was frozen and trembling next to him.

“N-No, Emerson…I just g-got the news…I…” Lily stuttered, terrified out of her mind. Riona eyed her friend worriedly; she would start hyperventilating from sheer terror any minute now. 

“Okay, okay, just _go,_ ” Emerson chided, much calmer than he’d previously been. The Gryffindor Keeper’s tone was level, but he looked extremely unhappy because of the news he’d just received. 

Lily ran over to Riona, still trembling. “H-How do you even p-put up with this bloke? He’s s-so bloody scary!”

“I know, Emerson’s strict as hell, but he isn’t usually this angry about anything. I’m sorry you had to see that,” Riona sighed, a frown forming on her face, “I wish I could know what happened over there.”

“Well,” Lily began to explain, blinking rapidly to clear the tears of fear from her large green eyes. “Apparently—”

“—apparently, our best Chaser’s out _sick_ today! Goddammit!” Emerson cried in pure despair, also adding in some various swearing. “Why, Julian?!”

Julian Gravesend, one of the most talented players on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, was the unanimously proclaimed ‘God of Chasers’. His talent when it came to his position was mind blowing, and if he was out sick, then the chance of Gryffindor beating Slytherin that afternoon had sharply dropped. 

Even worse, Riona and the rest of the team didn’t know any students that could substitute for a Chaser like Julian.

To put it lightly, unless a replacement couldn’t be found, the team was screwed.

“Oh, Merlin, what are we going to do?” Riona sighed unhappily. Lily put a comforting arm around her shoulders.

“I’m sure we can think of something, honestly,” Lily replied, trying to be as positive as possible in the unfortunate situation, “I know that there’s plenty of people around who have some Quidditch talent and can work as substitutes…”

She trailed off as she saw a familiar group of idiots walk into the common room, hair mussed and eyes clearly glittering with mischief. As soon as the Marauders saw the blank, sad expressions of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, they stopped, evidently confused.

“Hi, everyone,” Remus began with a worried look, “Why the long faces?”

_Silence._

 _Dead silence_ was all that greeted the boys as the Quidditch team stared at them, uninterested. For once, no one yelled something vulgar or scoffed at the Marauders.

“Um, Julian’s out sick and we need a replacement Chaser,” Lily broke the awkward moment by answering the boy in front of her. “Are any of you decent at Quidditch?” She was clearly joking, but sadly, only Riona noticed this.

The last sentence seemed to snap everyone else in the room out of their trance as they marched over to the now quivering redhead. Emerson clearly looked even angrier than before, and the Quidditch team members surrounding Lily looked pissed, if not fuming. Riona began to feel cold sweat run down her neck as she realized that if Lily pushed the wrong buttons, she wouldn’t ever forget the coming storm that was currently simmering and steaming in the ranks of her fellow classmates.

“Evans,” Emerson whispered menacingly, casting a side glance at the now terrified Marauders, “Are you suggesting that we let one of those _idiots_ replace the best Chaser in the _entire damn school_?”

“ _Idiots_?!” Sirius cried, pretending to be deeply insulted. “How _dare_ you?”

Lily’s face became the color of a clean sheet of paper as she looked up at the Gryffindor Keeper, eyes wide with fear. “I…I…was joking…”

Before her captain could start another furious rant, Riona tapped him on the shoulder. “Emerson, please don’t be mad. She’s only trying to lighten the mood, and who knows; jokes aside, maybe one of them _could_ be useful.”

“ _Exactly_ , Dumbledore,” James swaggered forward proudly, giving her a lopsided grin.

“One of us is useful…” He took a moment to shoot deadly glares at half of the Quidditch team. “…contrary to _popular_ belief.”

The boy in front of Riona was now smirking, as if looking down on everyone in the whole room. It irked Riona slightly, but then again, it was his usual pompous, arrogant attitude. But James’ current expression was more than just a cocky grin; it was something competitive, something that made him look like a Quidditch team Chaser about to decisively snag the Quaffle and toss it into the goal.

“Okay, okay, I was only _joking_ about one of you joining the team,” Lily snapped, shooting daggers at James with her eyes. “What are you playing at?”

“I’m offering you people a free substitute Chaser, also known as _me,_ ” James shot back with a wider smirk directed at Lily, “Don’t be such a jerk about it, _Lily flower.”_

Lily kept glaring viciously at him until Riona put a calming hand on her shoulder. James had called Lily the one thing that she hated most of all: a pet name, the only phrase that could send her into a livid, world destroying fit capable of wiping her offenders off the face of the earth.

As soon as the Marauder finished talking, everyone turned to look at him, eyes wide with surprise and disbelief. No one expected any of the four boys who’d randomly walked in on their problem to actually be athletic, so this was a shocker to most. Riona rapidly blinked and pinched herself to make sure that this wasn’t a dream of some sort.

_So…a Marauder can help? Interesting._

“James, do you really have what it takes to replace Julian?” Riona asked, folding her arms and stepping forward to face the person she’d been tutoring for the last five months. 

“I think I _do_ have what it takes, Dumbledore,” James’ response was in his usual snobby, proud tone that made Riona want to slap him, “Got a problem?”

_Yes, I do, you royal pain in the—_

“For now, I _don’t_ have an issue with you being a substitute,” Emerson’s reply made everyone swivel around to gawp at the Keeper, eyes wide with pure, unfiltered shock, “But if you try anything during the game, you sure as hell won’t be playing Quidditch until you graduate.”

°°°

When Riona, Lily and the Marauders came back to the Quidditch pitch, the one and only Eszter Grindelwald was waiting for them, calmly leaning against a pole. She eyed James with a raised brow.

“So, you’re replacing Julian Gravesend, the God of Chasers? My, my, how long did it take to convince Emerson to let you play?” Eszter asked the questions with her usual calm tone, as if she was talking about the weather over tea.

“You bet,” James announced with an arrogant grin. He stepped closer, flaunting his incessantly overbearing pride, to everyone’s extreme annoyance,“I, the _almighty_ , _excellent_ , _handsome_ James Potter, have been given the honor of replacing the God.”

Lily rolled her eyes out of pure disgust, along with Riona and Remus.

Eszter’s face was still unnervingly calm as she nonchalantly looked up at the Marauder, “Pardon me, but I’d have to disagree with the ‘ _almighty_ ’ part of your cute little description. Last time I checked, our planet revolved around the _sun_ , not _you_.”

“I think most of us would agree!” Sirius declared with an unseemly guffaw.

James’ proud pose didn’t even waver as Eszter landed her little blow on his ego, and he merely sighed dramatically. “Way to make my day, Grindelwald. Anyway, I’m ready to crush those Slytherin losers into the ground!”

“You’re ready to what, James?”

Isolt, the Slytherin Keeper herself, gracefully sashayed over to the group, singlehandedly making everyone around her feel absolutely hideous. Those mismatched eyes of hers focused on James, but he didn’t show a single sign of love, nerves, or respect: he just arrogantly stood there, facing Isolt defiantly.

“You heard me, Baykara—!”

“ _Donovan_ -Baykara,” Isolt corrected him with an angelic laugh that covered Peter’s face in a deep red blush, “I wish you a lot of luck, James, we’ll put up quite a fight in this game! Trust me, it’ll be a match that you will definitely remember.”

“We’ll see, you conniving _snake_ ,” James malevolently snickered, earning a fierce glare from Lily. When Isolt noticed Riona, she immediately walked over, tossing a long, pale lock of hair over her shoulder.

“Riona!” She cried with a benevolent smile, completely ignoring everyone else. “It’s so good to see you! How are you doing?”

“I’m good, thanks,” Riona replied, returning her happy expression, “Let’s hope we all do well in the upcoming game, okay?”

“Well said, I’ll definitely wish for the best,” Isolt mused, “See you at the match!”

She elegantly sashayed away again, bumping into Lily and Eszter as she left, and as soon as Isolt was out of sight, Lily sighed uncomfortably and went over to Riona.

“How do you even deal with these people?” She whispered unhappily. “Those three boys next to you are so… _weird_ , James is an overinflated ass, and Isolt doesn’t seem to even know that I exist!”

“Well, I guess you get used to that stuff after a while,” Riona sighed, “After all, I’ve survived tutoring these boys for this long, so it makes sense that I don’t mind it anymore.”

_Now all I have to do is get used to the fact that I’m about to try to win a Quidditch match with James Potter on my team._

With a sigh, she channeled her inner Eszter and let sarcasm drip into her thoughts like syrup onto pancakes.

_Oh my, what a lovely day this is._


	14. The Quidditch Match

As the round, large Quaffle was thrown high into the air, the game began as everyone flying above the Quidditch pitch took action. The crowd cheered wildly as the match started and the players began to fly.

“ **Testing, testing!** ” The voice of a loud, happy student could be heard above the crowd. “ **Helllooo, people, and welcome to our newest Quidditch game! I’m your favorite commentator, Oliver Thomas, and my, oh my, things are getting quite interesting to watch by the Gryffindors’ goals…** ” 

Riona was among the students that were speeding on their brooms towards their positions. She held onto her broom with one hand while gripping her bat in the other, ready to smack any Bludger that flew towards her. Suddenly, a familiar, dark haired figure sped towards her on his borrowed broom. 

“James, what are you doing here?!” Riona demanded, struggling to focus on both him and the incoming balls. “You’re supposed to be going for the _Quaffle_!”

“I just dropped by to wish you luck, Dumbledore! Those snakes have got quite a team, so—!”

A Bludger ended up just inches away from James’ face as it sailed by from a Slytherin Beater’s post. Riona rolled her eyes and swung her own bat, catching a Chaser of the opposite team off guard and hitting his arm. His cry of agony made chills run down her spine.

“ **Goodness, Riona Dumbledore’s leaving bruises on players so early in the game, eh? Everyone, pay close attention to what’ll happen next, this match is getting good!** ” Oliver announced brightly.

“Look, just get out of the way before you get hit!” Riona cried. James actually complied, speeding away to find the Quaffle as a suppressed groan of pain came from behind the redhead.

Riona whipped around to see Theodore MacDuff, the other Beater on the team, doubled over on his broom, clutching his stomach. His eyes, so dark that they were nearly black, made contact with her own gaze as he wheezed from the force of whatever had hit him.

“Theo, what happened?” Riona asked, quickly gliding over to help him in any way she could. 

“The damned _Quaffle_.” They groaned, voice raspy from his evident pain. “It got me in the stomach when some Slytherin Chaser threw it. Gah, that hurt.” 

Riona winced as she helped him fly back to his position, using her bat to send another Bludger into the shoulder of another Slytherin player. As the girl who’d been smacked cried out, the commentator spoke up yet again, bringing more news.

“ **What a play from Eliza Sheridan and Winston Norris over from the Slytherin team! Ten points for them as Jeong fails to catch the Quaffle! Oh my, well done!** ”

A cheer went up from the Slytherins on the bleachers, and some panic began to creep into Riona’s mind. She looked towards the Slytherin goals, and saw Isolt effortlessly tossing back and blocking the Quaffle at blinding speeds. The smirk on her beautiful face showed off pure ambition as she watched the Chasers of her team maneuvering to the other team’s goals.

Then, all of a sudden, James flew towards the opposing Chasers, swiftly taking back the Quaffle like the professional Quidditch player he clearly was not. The panic was replaced by utter shock on Riona’s face as the Marauder and two other Chasers brought the Quaffle towards the area where Isolt guarded the goals on her broom.

Seconds later, an ecstatic cheer went up from the crowd.

“ **A fantastic, utterly brilliant attack from James Potter, Manuel Nuñez, and Tom Porter leads to ten points awarded to Gryffindor, effectively tying the score between our two teams!** ” Oliver shouted with pure glee.

Hope swelled in Riona’s heart as she aimed a Bludger at what looked like a Slytherin Chaser, but despite missing her target by an inch, her confidence grew as her team scored yet another ten points. Now the smirk on Isolt’s face was replaced with a look of absolute frustration, and the Slytherin Keeper was clearly swearing under her breath.

“Oi, Riona, watch out!” 

The warning came just in time for her to swerve out of the way to leave a path for Diana Fallow, the Gryffindor Seeker. The young girl’s blonde curls smacked Riona’s face as the Seeker flew by, relentlessly pursuing the ever-elusive Snitch.

“ **TEN POINTS FOR SLYTHERIN!** ” Oliver cried. The score was now 20-20, and both Riona and her teammates were quickly and obviously feeling more and more nervous by the second.

“Be careful, Diana!” Riona called after her worriedly, rubbing her curl-attacked cheek. As she took a moment to quickly scan the area for any other players coming her way, she didn’t notice the Bludger heading straight towards her.

“RIONA, TURN AROUND!” Theo’s frantic warning came far too late as the ball sank into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and sending Riona off of her broom.

°°°

_I’m falling._

That was the only thought in Riona’s mind as she sailed down towards the hard, unforgiving ground below her. Despite the obvious cries of shock and reactions from the other players and the crowd, the sounds were muted as Riona focused on the fact that she wouldn’t come out of this situation unharmed. Time seemed to abruptly slow down as she quickly plummeted towards the earth.

All she had in her arms was a bat that couldn’t possibly help her back onto her broom. The instrument that served such a purpose during the game was now absolutely, utterly useless to her.

“ **What is going on here? Did something just knock Riona Dumbledore from her broom?! Someone do something, she’s getting closer to the ground!!** ” Oliver screeched frantically, all of his cheerful attitude gone and quickly replaced with blatant fear.

Thoughts began rushing into Riona’s head as she descended, uninterrupted, towards the ground, oblivious to all of the sound and activity going on above and below her.

_I’ll break an arm._

_Maybe my leg will be broken._

_My spine…if it gets damaged, I’ll never be able to play Quidditch again…_

The very thought of leaving behind her favorite sport brought a few tears to Riona’s eyes. What would happen to her if she was forced to drop Quidditch? Would her dreams of playing for the team until she graduated be thrown out the window forever? Who would remember her as a great Beater, and not as a broken shell of a former player whose athletic life was ruined because of some stupid Bludger? How would she be able to cope with the incident?

Then Riona realized that she was speeding head first towards the grass at an even faster rate.

Another thought entered her mind.

_Will I even survive this fall?_

She shut her eyes, waiting for this horrible moment to end, wishing that she was just dreaming of this hellish sensation of plunging towards the ground in front of _everyone_.

But then, the feeling of plummeting downwards suddenly stopped. Riona slowly opened her eyes, having no idea what had just happened. Had she hit the ground? Was she _bleeding_? What was going on?

Her gaze moved up, and Riona realized that she was still in the air, but her right foot was being held in a tight grip by someone else on a broom. Shock returned to her brain once again when a familiar pair of shiny hazel eyes looked down at her worriedly, shifting from her body to the ground below her.

Riona was dangling seven mere feet off of the ground, and James Potter, of all people, was clutching her foot with an iron grip. The crowd around the Quidditch pitch was silent, but then, it exploded into cheers of joy and approval. The commentator’s face brightened as he picked up his microphone and ecstatically began reporting to his listeners again.

“ _ **No way**!_” Oliver screamed. “ **Riona Dumbledore’s been miraculously rescued by James Potter, a substitute player for the Gryffindor team! Thank goodness, no one was hurt! Now get on with the match!** ”

James helped Riona sit on his broom as he steadily maneuvered towards her own broom. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Y-Yes, I…” Riona hadn’t fully recovered yet, but she knew exactly what to say to the Marauder. “Thank you, James. Thank you so bloody much for saving me.”

The boy only gave her an extremely haughty grin as a response, then flew off to chase the Quaffle with no hesitation whatsoever. Riona smiled, held her trusty bat tighter, and swung it hard at the same Bludger that had nearly made her crash to the ground. The offending ball sped towards a person, but not just any player: it hit the best Slytherin Chaser, Zachary Weston, in the center of the chest, making him double over and screech with pure anger, but not before he tossed the Quaffle into a goal, along with two other Chasers who repeated the same action.

“ **Ah, despite Dumbledore’s valiant efforts to distract a Slytherin Chaser, we have another thirty points from Slytherin! Seems like Emerson Jeong is having quite a hard time protecting his post**!” Oliver announced, to the Gryffindor team’s obvious and enormous chagrin. Emerson looked absolutely shattered at his place by the goals, face tense with ill hidden despair.

Riona slumped dejectedly on her broom, unsure of what to do as forty more points were quickly given to her opponent, until a tap on her shoulder snapped her back to attention. James was behind her, pointing vaguely towards something by the Gryffindor goal.

“Do you see that?” He asked, looking more closely at the distant, clearly human shape.

“That’s…” Riona perked up immediately. “It’s Diana, our Seeker, and Frederick Crow, the other Seeker, is right behind her!”

“You know what to do!” James shouted, joining the other Chasers to attack the Quaffle that was newly wrenched from the Slytherins’ arms. Meanwhile, Riona saw another Bludger, coming right at her, but this time, she was ready to hit it with every bit of force she had. 

As the Bludger connected with her bat, it flew in a perfect, clear path straight towards the Seekers who were flying to the Snitch. The well-aimed ball sailed through the air and connected with Frederick’s unprotected leg. He cried out and backed down for a moment, giving Diana enough time to snatch the golden ball she had been hunting and give her team 150 points.

**Gryffindor: 170**

**Slytherin: 90**

_Riona’s team had won._

The parts of the crowd who’d been rooting for Slytherin let out nearly simultaneous shouts of indignation, while the Gryffindor supporters were smothering their friends with pure joy as they cheered and sang their praises. Isolt and her team looked crushed and unhappy as they left the pitch. As soon as Riona and her team dismounted from their brooms, they sprinted across the grass to start hugging and complimenting each other.

“YAY!”

“Great job, everyone!”

“We _won_!”

“Nice work, Diana!”

Soon, Emerson caught everyone’s attention with a loud ‘ _ahem_ ’, then stepped aside to reveal a Chaser that Riona barely knew, Janice Keagan, standing behind the Keeper with a warm smile. 

“Guys, I’ve decided it’s time for me to leave the team. I’m already graduating this year, so I believe that you guys won’t need me as much nowadays.” Her declaration was met with very confused looks from everyone except for Emerson.

“But, with help from our Keeper, I have found a replacement that will take my position. This person, although we judged him _unfairly_ , proved themselves to be worthy of being a Chaser today.”

By then, everyone knew who Janice was talking about, and turned towards the evidently surprised, hazel-eyed boy next to Riona. He looked thrilled and prepared to let out a triumphant cry before the retiring player could finish. 

“Ladies, gents, I present to you the newest addition to our team: _James Potter_.”

The last thing anyone on the Gryffindor Quidditch team heard before temporarily losing their hearing was an amazed, high-pitched shriek of joy that shattered every bit of glass that was four kilometers away from the now unoccupied Quidditch pitch.


	15. The Game

**March 9, 1975**

Transfiguration had an overwhelmingly common tendency to be plain, unchanged, and utterly boring, according to Eszter, who would have so much rather been reading her grandfather’s handbook at the moment than be shut up in that room. The brunette sat in her seat, flicking her hand to stay awake and listen to Professor McGonagall’s lecture. 

At this point, she’d resorted to counting seconds to pass time, from one to sixty, starting over the count every time a minute passed.

“Please open your textbooks to page 257…”

_Egy, kettő, három…_

“Now, this spell is a bit of a pain to carry out, but bear with me…”

_Négy, öt, hat…_

Every time the teacher’s stern gaze began to move in her direction, Eszter pretended to carefully listen to everything she was saying, acting like the model student that she would _never_ be in Professor McGonagall’s eyes.

“Bored, huh?” Remus whispered next to her. “I don’t blame you.”

Eszter looked over at Remus, the shy, bookish Marauder she’d been tutoring for six months now, with a small nod. “Mhm, she’s about as interesting as a _brick_.”

“Hey, shut up!” Sirius hissed from behind her with a glare. “She’s actually a decent professor, mind you!”

“That’s _plausible_ ,” Eszter quietly shot back. “Especially since this is coming from someone who called this ‘decent professor’ a _hag_ just a few months ago.”

“I hate to interrupt your _very_ important muttering, but I’m explaining something right now, Grindelwald and Black. Stay silent or it’s fifteen points from both of your Houses,” Professor McGonagall snapped from the front of the room, glaring at them icily.

As soon as the older woman turned around to demonstrate something, Eszter took a moment to calmly roll her eyes out of view of the teacher. As soon as Professor McGonagall finished her lecture, she turned to face her now silent class with a fairly serious, no-nonsense expression. Her gaze, almost as glacial as Eszter’s eye color, scanned the room before she spoke.

“Everyone, stay in your seats.” 

All of a sudden, the desks and chairs began to levitate, slowly rising into the air as they responded to the decisive flick of the teacher’s wand. Gasps and some surprised cries came from a few of the students who were now stuck in the air. Eszter began drumming her fingers on her desk, patiently waiting for the professor’s next instructions.

“Obviously, all of you are floating. Please, overcome whatever fears you may have and stand up on your desks.”

Many students let out even more gasps and other panicked sounds as they stood on a surface usually meant for holding paper, not feet. Eszter stood, unwavering and undaunted, on her desk. She didn’t see the point in fearing heights; according to her, it was an absolute waste of time to dwell on fear, since she would rather focus more on books instead of the things that haunted the nightmares of others.

“Careful, Peter, don’t fall!” Remus cautiously whispered, catching the younger boy’s arm before he could tip forward and plummet to the hard, uncomfortable wooden floor beneath them.

“Oh, thanks, Remus!” Peter nervously yelped, steadying himself. The poor teenager was a klutz, and to Eszter’s annoyance, he always depended on others to help him. 

“I see all of you are in the right place.” Professor McGonagall noted. “Well then, here is your assignment. I presume you children would call this a game. For you, your desk, and your chair to reach the ground safely, you must temporarily transfigure other students into any item of your choice that will _not_ damage the classroom. The students transfigured will be lowered down, but I wouldn’t recommend letting yourself become an object: the last five students will each gain fifty points for their House. After we determine the final five, there will be more transfiguration. The last one standing gets twenty extra credit point so on the next exam I administer, and be warned, this test will be _very_ difficult.”

Everyone in the room went silent for a few seconds, thinking about the situation. Eszter, on the other hand, allowed a mirthless smirk to show up on her face. 

_Finally, the irksome bitch has something decent to offer._

The brunette sighed, raised her wand, and waited for the signal to begin.

“ _Start_.”

°°°

As soon as the professor spoke, energy immediately returned to the room as spells flew and students clashed. Some teenagers giggled with malice as their magic sped through the air, attacking their peers, while others screeched with terror as more and more energy began to head towards them.

In the first minute, only two students were eliminated, respectively becoming a daisy and a gopher before being returned to human form by the professor. 

Eszter then figured out exactly who to pick off next as a jet of light barely missed her hand. She whipped around to see another student with his wand pointed at her.

“Dammit, I almost hit you!”

It was Ted Hawthorne, a rather annoying, talkative boy who was on neutral terms with Eszter. His dark blue eyes were fixed on her as he raised his wand to attack the brunette with yet another spell.

This time, Eszter was ready, and turned him into a fluffy white bunny with a bright pink bow on its small, fuzzy left ear. The students who’d seen Eszter’s lovely transfiguration giggled softly as the bunny snuffled and squeaked at her angrily before being lowered to the ground. As soon as the animal was below her, Eszter whipped around to find her next victim.

There he was, Remus Lupin, completely oblivious to her as he shot a spell at another girl. Eszter let out a reluctant sigh as she raised her own wand to fire her magic at the Marauder.

“N-Not so fast, Grindelwald!”

Before she could completely turn around, a bolt of well-aimed magic sped past her ear from the wand of Peter Pettigrew, of all people. Eszter’s polite expression became practically demonic as she fixed her eyes on the smaller boy. The courageous façade that the teenager wore was clearly disguising his obvious reluctance.

“I’m not going to let you win!” Peter declared, his tone filled with enough arrogance to make James Potter jealous. 

_Oh, how adorable._

“My, you’ve got some nerve, _Pettigrew_.” Eszter made sure that the last word was filled with pure contempt, just to bring Peter’s guard down a little. “You aren’t going to let me win? _As if_.”

With one swipe of her wand, Peter became a delectable, sweet cinnamon roll. The sticky dessert sailed down towards the ground on its desk, and Eszter didn’t even bother to watch it descend; she had more opponents to beat.

Soon, two minutes became seven minutes, and the sixth person left became a textbook, falling to the floor with their desk and chair with a small thump, despite being unharmed.

“Ah, we are down to five students.” Professor McGonagall announced in her usual, professional tone.

_Sirius Black._

_Remus Lupin._

_Louise Winters._

_Preston Creevey._

_Eszter Grindelwald._

“Apparently, we have fifty points in total given to Hufflepuff. Well done, Miss Winters. A total of a hundred points is awarded to Ravenclaw, hats off to Grindelwald and Creevey. We also have another one hundred points to Gryffindor, earned by Lupin and Black. Now, the final competition shall begin.”

For a moment or two, no one out of the five lucky children moved. Below them, the rest of their class was observing their every move, and the teacher was also constantly watching them. No one knew what to turn each other into, and Eszter felt emptied because of the sheer lack of ideas that she’d suddenly experienced.

Then, a flash of light turned Preston into a fragile blue rose, and the fighting began.

“You’ll never win, Winters!” Sirius cackled, shooting spell after spell at the delicate blonde girl known as Louise.

“Oh yeah, Sirius?! _Try me_!” Louise spat out her response with a terrifying glare, defending herself as well as she could. Eszter then found the chance to strike as Louise took a second to peek at Sirius’ very confident expression.

There was a surprised, high-pitched cry as the formerly distracted Hufflepuff girl became a candle, then descended to the floor to join the rest of the defeated teenagers.

“Why’d you steal my target?” Sirius whined childishly, now aiming his magic at a now satisfied Eszter. “That wasn’t fair!”

“Fairness is an illusion, Sirius.”

“You’re not a bloody _philosopher_ , Grindelwald! This isn’t a suitable time to be spouting ‘sensible’ bullshit!”

“You’re not much of a critic, so you can’t judge.” Eszter shot back as she fired another spell. Before Sirius could react, it grazed his right ear, quickly taking effect and transforming him.

Eszter contemplated about the boy’s new form for a while, then decided to turn Sirius into a very skinny, measly caterpillar that ended up crawling all over the smooth, polished desk, most likely whispering curses and angry monologues in whatever language that caterpillars happened to speak in.

Only she and Remus were left floating above the class, wands raised and ready to fight each other. Remus’ brows were furrowed in concentration, and he looked completely prepared to defend himself, which didn’t exactly benefit Eszter. Soon, the blue-eyed girl felt the intense hum of magic as her wand released yet another spell.

At the same time, Remus unleashed his own magic, making both flashes of light clash.

An intense, crackling mound of energy filled the middle of the colliding spells, forcing Remus and Eszter to take a step back. The magic hummed and sizzled, becoming even stronger from the sheer power of the forces that had clashed to create it. The sparks began to move closer and closer to Eszter’s face as the ethereal, powerful energy continued to grow.

Then, the energy abruptly charged into her direction. Apparently, Remus’ spell had been stronger than hers, so the tide turned in his favor.

Eszter did the only thing she could do and quickly let herself dangle from the edge of her desk, gripping onto the corner of the smooth table with both hands to avoid the ball of magic that was now heading into the wall behind her. One of Eszter’s sleeves now had an odd, glowng orange mark from the mass that had grazed her clothing.

The class was waiting to see if Eszter would fall, effectively forfeiting and handing the win to Remus.

“You can’t hold on for too long, it’s not safe!” Remus cried from his desk worriedly. “Do you need help?”

_When I’m this close to winning? Hell no, Lupin._

_I._

_Will._

_Beat._

_Him._

_Now._

With those positive thoughts in mind, Eszter moved her right hand to grip the back of her chair as she pushed herself back onto the seat of her chair, then onto her desk. The muscles in her hands and arms burned from the strength she’d needed, but it was definitely worth it. The girl took a few breaths, raised her wand again, then hit Remus’ hand.

The introverted Marauder became a potato and lost the match.

With a peaceful smile, Eszter descended from the air and accepted those lovely extra credit points promised by her teacher. Professor McGonagall’s cool façade slightly broke at the sight of the smirking brunette calmly asking for the reward, but at this point, Eszter didn’t care.

For once in her life, she looked forward to the next Transfiguration class. Maybe more activities like this would be presented, and this subject wouldn’t be as ridiculously dull as it already was.

_Maybe this class could become…fun?_


	16. Bonds and Brothers

The trip to the Great Hall for dinner was uninterrupted and peaceful for Eszter for the first time in four months. Finally, no one gave her those useless, questioning looks when she went to dinner with Riona and the Marauders, or, God forbid, started whispering rather loudly just so Eszter could hear every taunt aimed at her from the other students. Now that the game was over, she could relax, she supposed.

When she sat down to fill a plate with a decent amount of food and began to drink her coffee—taken black with not an ounce of sugar, as expected—her temporary peace was destroyed with the arrival of a certain group of boys and the ever-emotional Riona Dumbledore.

“Hellooooo!” James greeted Eszter with his typical obnoxious grin, sitting down next to her. “Guess who’s back?”

“McGonagall’s _pet_ , that’s who’s back,” Eszter replied with a barely suppressed smirk, taking a little bite out of a roll on her plate before downing a sip of coffee.

“Say that again, you—!” 

“Alright, you two, calm down,” Peter gently asked, nervously looking at the small argument that had just begun. “You don’t need to piss each other off as soon as you get to dinner.”

Eszter nodded approvingly at the mediator of what could have been a full-blown verbal war, then went back to slowly eating her meal. Riona soon spotted Lily, or whoever her little ginger friend was, and walked over to chat with her, while Peter innocently listened to James and Sirius talk about their days and the ‘pretty’ girls, among other things. 

As she slowly consumed her dinner, Eszter began to wonder about the random things that occupied her brain. Of course, no one bothered to ask her about her daydreaming; Eszter doubted that anyone would even think of approaching someone like _her_ , an all too obvious blemish on the face of the oh-so lovely wizarding world. 

_Not like they’re brave enough to do that anyway._

_Cowards, the lot of them._

“Eszter, are you busy?”

The brunette snapped out of her thoughts and turned, calmly facing a petite, blonde Ravenclaw first year. Leonard Swiftwood was a freckled, kind young man with a perpetually cheery disposition, and was one of the handful of students who didn’t care about Eszter’s lineage. The little boy had always been sweet to her, and acted a bit like the younger brother that Eszter never had.

“No, I’m not occupied at the moment, Leo. What is it?”

Leo blinked rapidly a few times, and Eszter knew that when the boy did this, he was clearly on edge. “Um…there’s a problem outside of the Great Hall.” 

Eszter could have rolled her eyes right then and there. Since she was a more or less trusted prefect, the brunette was basically _obligated_ to mediate fights between students that occasionally happened. Eszter sighed, got up, and left the Marauders to get to the scene of the fight.

When she opened the doors, a young boy sailed right past her with a scream, hitting the floor after a spell struck him in the chest. Something about the teenager was strangely familiar, but Eszter, wasting no time on examining him, turned to face the perpetrator of the spell, calmly clasping her hands together.

“What is going on here?” Her voice was icy, and it was specifically crafted to send chills up the spines of the students around her. Behind her, Leo whimpered in fear. Of course the spectators of the argument were scared; the one and only Eszter Grindelwald had shown up.

“I…I don’t know…” The boy on the floor slowly got up, brushing the dust off of his uniform and out of his neatly combed black hair. “Avery a-and Nigel Selwyn just walked over and—!”

“Shut up,” A tall, willowy young man with a few pimples marring his otherwise half-decent face snarled, tightly gripping his wand. Evidently, he was the ‘Nigel’ that the teen on the ground had referred to. “You know exactly why we did this, you dirty _sympathizer_.”

“‘ _Sympathizer_ ’?” Eszter inquired, making direct eye contact with the tall boy in front of her. “What are you implying, Selwyn? Also, how could you think that it was appropriate to jinx another student? Are you an idiot, or are you just asking for a free detention?”

“He fraternized with a few _Mudbloods_ today. He helped a few of those dirty little _rats_.” A Slytherin girl around seventeen with light olive skin and a head full of blonde curls, seemingly the ‘Ileana’ that was mentioned by the boy, spat cruelly, “That’s inexcusable for someone of his standing.”

“Don’t you dare patronize Muggleborns, youdisgusting _cow_!” Leo screeched indignantly. He was a Muggleborn, and clearly, the slurs used by Ileana were offensive as hell.

“Leo, please calm yourself,” Eszter commanded coolly, then turned to send his female offender a look that could have easily been carved from an iceberg, “Miss Avery, what gives you the right to decide another person’s standing? Who do you think you are?”

“I am a proud pureblood witch,” Ileana haughtily declared, twirling one of her bushy golden curls around her finger, “I will not stand for someone like me to stoop to _their_ level. I think that a girl like _you_ would understand my beliefs quite well.” She faced a furious Leo the entire time as she proclaimed the next sentence. 

“Shut up!” Leo yelled, now shedding some of the angry tears bubbling in his big, light brown eyes. 

At this point, Eszter was pissed. Why were there still such entitled, stupid wizards and witches around the world who believed that Muggleborns were dirt and scum compared to the perfect, unblemished purebloods? How could this horrible, prejudiced girl possibly believe that Eszter, who’d grown up in a city filled to the brim with ordinary people, hated Muggleborns as well? 

_These people are idiots,_ Eszter thought as she placed a comforting arm around Leo, _Absolute idiots._

“Ileana,” The brunette pronounced the name in a tone glacial enough to make the temperature drop around her. “What family do you happen to be from?”

“The Noble and Most Ancient House of Avery,” The blonde snootily announced to all that were around her, “Why do you ask?”

_Ah, so her lot’s part of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. How lovely,_ Eszter thought, sourly recalling the most pompous, wealthy pureblood families in England. 

Then she remembered this girl snogging, and as the rumors had it, shagging left and right. Ileana Avery had quite the renown as a girl who did unseemly things with boys, whether they be halfblood, Pureblood...

Eszter knew what she was about to say was more than a little cruel and was more than just downright slander, but if she was going to scare her off, it would have to do.

“I do seem to recall that you have a, how do you say it…ah, reputation. Having liaisons with every boy and every kind of blood you can see, huh? And here you are, lecturing me about blood purity,” A few _oohs_ and _huhs_ were heard from the students watching the current argument.

There was silence before Eszter delivered her final blow.

“You _slut_.”

Ileana’s annoyingly angelic, perfect face turned a satisfying shade of bright red from pure rage. “You…you little…!”

“‘ _Little_ ’?” Eszter repeated snidely, feeling a smirk creep onto her face. “I am three inches taller than you, _whore_. Now, I suggest that you shut that mouth of yours, leave with your little boyfriend—Selwyn, or whatever his name is—and get whatever pureblood supremacists that support you here out of my sight. I am a prefect, in case your entitled little brain forgot that by now, so if you don’t comply, you and your friends will each get a free detention for slandering students and an unauthorized use of spells.”

Ileana glared at her indignantly, took Nigel’s elbow, and left the scene with a few other students, huffing angrily under her breath.

“That was...wow...thank you!” The teenager who’d been hit by a spell happily exclaimed, running over to Eszter. “Honestly, if Leo hadn’t gotten you over here, those bastards would have complained to my parents about me helping Muggleborns with homework…”

“No problem,” Eszter replied with a small smile, folding her arms, “Anyway, who are you?”

“Well, my name is—”

“Reggie, what are you doing over here, and why do you have a giant bruise on your arm?!”

It was Sirius Black, of all people, followed by Remus, Peter, and Riona. Sirius immediately ran over to the black-haired teen, anxiously examining him. The boy rolled his eyes, backing away from the Marauder.

“For the love of Merlin, Sirius, can you please stop treating me like a baby?” The boy demanded with a groan.

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Sirius laughed with a mischievous grin, “Anyway, to all of you who don’t know this nice young chap, this is my _adorable_ little brother, Regulus Black, also known as Reggie. You can also call him Reggers, Lord Regs, Re—!”

The familiarity Eszter had felt when she’d seen Regulus for the first time finally made sense. 

_Sirius has a brother._

“Why, oh why was I cursed with this complete douche?!” Regulus cried unhappily as everyone else laughed.

°°°

“So…how much older is Sirius?” Riona asked as she chatted with Regulus at the table. After being cordially invited to eat with the Marauders, Sirius’ little brother reluctantly agreed, only on the condition that no one would see him eating with the group for _personal_ reasons.

“By a year,” Regulus sighed, slowly drinking from his cup of mint tea, “I wish I was older so I could boss him around.”

“What do you have to be jealous of?” Sirius demanded with a scoff. “You’re the favorite, so you don’t need to be older for Mum and Dad to love you more.”

Eszter perked up when the Marauder mentioned his family. “So, your family chooses favorites? Oh, that’s…unfortunate.”

“Mhm,” Sirius replied bitterly, “I’m apparently ‘the heir the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black—Merlin, what a mouthful of words—and my family is, to put it lightly, _fucked in the head_. They’re all ‘pure’ and ‘superior’, hate every Muggle they see, always look like they’re going to kill everybody around them…”

The Marauder trailed off when his brother shot a withering glare at him. Regulus clearly didn’t appreciate the slandering of his family name, and he cleared his throat to speak after Sirius shut up.

“So…Eszter…that’s your name, right?” He asked, changing the subject. “What do you think of these guys? Do they annoy you much?”

“Yes, you got my name right. James, you should use this nice young man as an example,” Eszter snickered. James caught on to her teasing and laughed along with her.

“Oh, come on, I only got your name wrong that _one time_ when we were normally introduced!” James retorted with a grin.

“Alright, I’ll leave you be, _Mr. Potter_. Yes, these people annoy me a lot, and I’m not going to list names, but _some_ of these guys are particularly irritating.”

“Nuh-uh!” Sirius childishly snapped. 

“Yeah, you’re right, but at least Remus and I are normal,” Peter giggled over a mouthful of pastry, “If we’ve survived four years with the other Marauders, I’m sure that the two of us are more than capable of being the only sane people in the group.”

“You already are, and I’m _fairly_ certain that Riona and I are quite sane as well,” Eszter added, casting a doubtful glance at Riona, earning an annoyed glare.

“Can you not use that sarcasm on me for the rest of dinner? I really don’t want to use a Silencing Charm, but if you keep rambling, I definitely will,” Riona snapped angrily. 

_Temper, temper._

“Oh, please, _try me_ , if you’re fine with living without a few limbs,” Eszter scoffed with an eye roll, “But you’re a _special_ little girl, so who knows what you’re capable of doing.”

“Oh, for the love of _Merlin_ , _shut your damn mouth,_ Grindelwald—!”

“You two, _please_ , not in front of Reg…” Sirius trailed off when he saw the empty seat previously occupied by his little brother, and his shoulders slumped with…dismay?

“Sirius, did you want to make him comfortable with us?” Eszter inquired as the Marauder sat down dejectedly.

“Yeah. I wanted Reggie to feel okay around people who don’t believe in pureblood rule, but I guess Mum and Dad’s opinions got the best of him in the end. Our parents make it seem like all Muggles and Muggleborns are bad and that their sympathizers are equally awful. It’s dumb, I know, but I can’t change them. No one can.”

“So, Regulus hangs out with those assholes to impress your family…”

“Mhm. It’s the reason why he’s the favorite and I’m not. I’m friends with with… _sympathizers_ …while he’s the one hanging out with some supremacist bastards. I wish I could change him, but then again, he’s even more stubborn than Mum, so I can’t do anything for him.”

_Helpless_ was the only way to describe Sirius as he stopped talking and began slowly eating whatever was on his plate, and Eszter couldn’t possibly blame him. The Marauder could do nothing to change his family’s opinions, and the knowledge of that fact was clearly eating away at him, slowly decomposing whatever hope he had left for Regulus and the rest of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black.

“If Regulus adopts the opinions that your mum and dad have chosen, so be it,” Remus coolly stated as he joined the conversation. “But don’t let your family’s bitching affect you, Sirius. Even if you can’t convince Reggie to love wizards for their personality, not for their ancestry, you always have us to help you cope with that.”

“Uh huh,” James added with a grin, “We’re your friends, and trust me, all of us will support you.”

“Definitely,” Peter declared with a caring smile.

Eszter couldn’t have agreed more.

“Well, James,” Eszter sighed with a genuine smile. “You’re right. We should help Sirius with his issues, and do what we can to _help him when he needs us._ ” 

The words were unintentionally kind and overly cliché, but in that moment, Eszter Grindelwald didn’t give a damn about how typical they were.

For once, she felt as if she’d finally started building a genuine bond of what could be called _friendship_ with these people who she once considered to be a bunch of crazy simpletons.

This bond was like a rare, vibrant, enchanting plant that had been created in a dry, desolate tundra, and like any other beautiful flower, Eszter wanted to make sure that it would start to grow.


End file.
